


The World That We Lost

by Yabanned



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future Hyrule, Memory Loss, Post-Canon, Rebuilding, Spoilers, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-25 15:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10766853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yabanned/pseuds/Yabanned
Summary: After defeating Ganon, princess Zelda goes back to Hyrule, resolved to rebuild her kingdom and make it even greater than it was one hundred years ago. While she feels confident enough to face any challenge and confront any foe that stays on her way, a reality breaks her heart: Link remembers her, but not quite, and his new life has made changes in his personality that even the total recovery of his memories may not be able to revert.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story happens after the end of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but doesn't take into account the true ending, which means Link didn't recover all his memories before the battle against Ganon.
> 
> Heavy spoilers of the main game, minor spoilers of the DLC content.

“May I ask… do you really remember me?”

Once again, Zelda told herself that she needed to leave the bed she was given at Impa’s house and start the day, the first one after defeating Ganon. She had to stand up, go downstairs and speak with Impa again, then meet with the sheikah to come up with a plan to rebuild the kingdom and fix all the things that had gone wrong. She needed to do all that while facing the truth: Link was not who he used to be.

She had blurted the critical question almost as soon as Ganon had dissolved into oblivion. Link had nodded with a spark of familiarity in his tired eyes, with a little smile in his dry lips, covered in dirt as his whole body was, and she had feel relieved, oh, so relieved after one hundred years of fighting. But then, he gave her the old sheikah slate and said “Lady Impa is waiting for you”. The next thing she knew, she was in front of a sheikah shrine next to Kakariko Village.

The people from the village had spotted her because she had screamed in rage. They took her, shaking and feeling betrayed, to Impa’s presence, who had then explained the situation: everything was all right, Link was on his way to the village and Zelda had been transported via fast-travel, a property of the sheikah slate that Purah had developed during her absence. Everything was made to ensure Zelda’s safety, Impa declared.

Zelda knew what fast-travel was. She had followed Link’s perils through the land and could see him using it frequently. What she didn’t understand was why Link had sent her alone, just like that, after all they had gone through. The old Link would have never done such a thing. A Link who really remembered her, would know that the right thing was to leave the castle together.

“He wasn’t sure you could endure riding a horse”, explained Impa while Zelda sobbed, “we had no way to know in which state you were inside the castle, if the one hundred years you were enclosed fighting Calamity Ganon had passed through your body or not”. She said that Link refused to rely on food or medicines, for he wasn’t a healer and wasn’t sure he could react appropriately to any given scenario. They had thought on using the sheikah slate to transport them both, but it didn’t work when they tried it, so they agreed on sending Zelda first. 

“But I am perfectly fine!”, Zelda complained, “it is evident, isn’t it? He could see me with his own two eyes, he could have made a different choice!”. Impa had no answers to her fury. They decided to wait for Link to arrive and explain himself, but the way from the castle to Kakariko wasn’t precisely short, so at the end, Zelda had said she wanted to sleep, even if she felt more awake than ever, just to let Impa rest.

Zelda left the bed and peeked from the nearest window. It seemed to be very early. They had won the battle at dusk the day before, but it seemed so far ago, so unreal that, for a moment, she feared it was all a dream from which she would wake up to find the viscous, dirty snout of Ganon in front of her. The world was peaceful and quiet, indifferent of the events that had occurred. It brought a sad smile to her face.

“Your Majesty, you are awake!”

Zelda turned to the stairs, where a blushing sheikah girl was standing. She had seen her briefly the day before, but hadn’t had a word with her yet.

“I am Pa, Pay... Paya!”, said the girl, blushing ever more, “I am Impa’s granddaughter. Le, let me know if you need anything, please”.

“Has Link arrived?”, asked Zelda, too impatient to be polite.

“Master Link is not here yet”. Paya seemed flustered by the mere mention of Link, which Zelda found oddly amusing. “Do you… do Your Majesty wish to take breakfast?” 

“Not yet, thank you”, she answered. “Rather tell me, how is the clothes store called? When will they open? I wish to acquire new garments”.

“The store is called Enchanted Boutique and it will open in an hour, but I think I saw Claree in the street just now, I am sure she will let you in earlier”, said Paya, a little more confidently, and obviously relieved to be of help. “Claree is the owner of the shop; let me look for her, I will be back as fast as I can!”

Paya bowed awkwardly and then ran downstairs without making any noise. Sheikah people were very stealthy by nature, Zelda remembered how the officials would startle her when approaching in total silence, back in the days when they were figuring out how to control guardians. Those cursed machines. Zelda hoped all of them would be already deactivated; in the future, she could try to use their parts to build brand new mechanisms instead of trusting their rusty wiring again.

Paya came after a while and took her to the main room at the first floor, where they greeted Impa. She seemed to find troubling that Zelda wanted to buy new clothes.

“I am sure Claree has some fine attires on sale, but I am afraid your favorite shade of blue is not fashionable anymore, princess”, said the old lady, fixing her enormous hat, and she pointed at a chest in the corner of the room “why don’t you try what is in there to see if it still fits you, instead?” 

Zelda frowned, not sure if she was being made fun of, but then decided to check the chest. Inside, she found one of her royal garments: a white long dress, white fingerless gloves that would cover her whole arms, a blue and gold upper-dress with sleeves so long they almost touched the floor and a heavy golden sash.

“Where did you find this?”, asked Zelda, sure that an outfit like that shouldn’t be so far from her home.

“Some treasure hunters stole it from the castle, among other things”, explained Impa, very upset. “We found out and proceeded to seize all they had taken to keep it until you came back”.

Zelda felt sick. The last thing she needed was to learn that people had been stealing stuff from the castle the whole time she had been fighting Ganon. What a beautiful way of showing their appreciation for her sacrifice, she thought.

“I have seen Master Link carrying royal weapons”, said Paya, looking the floor, “I think he has been rescuing things of the royal family too, he may be storing them in Hateno. When he arrives, we can ask him if there are more of your clothes among his findings”. 

“I don’t think he considers his looting of the castle a way to rescue the royal patrimony”, said Zelda, not without resentment in her voice, “he just needed the best possible weapons to confront Ganon”. Paya blushed yet again, which brought a little smile to Zelda’s lips. “Thanks a lot for keeping this one for me, Impa”, she said, and the old lady nodded, “I will reserve it to my meetings with the authorities of the other races, since it is a very elegant attire.”

“It is lacking several pieces of jewelry, though” said Impa. “Why don’t you ask Claree to modify it, so it fits the needs of a traveler?”

“It would go to waste”, replied Zelda, checking thoroughly the state of the golden embroidery. “it is strange to renounce at the emblematic color of my house, but it is not a thing to die for”. Zelda tried a smile to soften the situation, but Impa didn’t seem comforted.

Zelda felt as she understood everything that passed through Impa’s mind and nothing at the same time. The old lady was one of the very few people that was alive before the Calamity and remembered her, so she probably was anxious to see how much Zelda had changed, which made a matter as trivial as the color of Zelda’s clothes become distressing. Zelda could not blame her, she felt the same way about Link.

“I will take this garment to Claree to ask for casual clothes of the same color”, declared Zelda, folding the over-dress, “I certainly love this shade of blue”.

Impa softened a bit and told Paya to guide Zelda to the shop. Claree was ecstatic to help. She took out all the blue clothes she had and spoke wonders of the special properties and enhancements that each piece had, suggesting several outfits on the way. She declared multiple times that Zelda could take as many clothes as she wanted for free because she had saved Hyrule, praising her for her courage and strength. It felt weird to be regarded in those terms, as if she was a knight or a warrior, but at the same time, seeing that people cared cheered her up.

Zelda chose some clothes, fit to walk as well as ride, and changed inside the boutique. When she left the place, she was welcomed with a round of applause by a small crowd of sheikah people. They congratulated her for her victory and safe return, wishing her the best and offering themselves for assistance. All the negativity flew away from Zelda’s heart while she thanked everybody and learned their names: Nanna, Olkin, Mellie, and old couple of farmers called Steen and Trissa, Ollie, Rola, whose black hair stood out among the white heads of everyone else, Cado and Dorian, who worked as guards of Impa’s house, and Dorian’s two little daughters, Koko and Cottla. Some of them told her that they were kids before the Calamity and had seen her from the distance, during their visits to castle town’s market. What a peculiar situation, to be there, hearing those words coming from wrinkled faces while she still looked and felt like she was seventeen.

Zelda thanked everybody, promised to attend the dinner they were going to offer in her honor that night and headed back to Impa’s house. She stopped for a while to see the frog statues that went along the edge of the building’s fence. They stayed exactly as she remembered them, with a sheikah eye painted in their bellies and a peaceful gesture in their faces. Each one had one plate to receive offerings, most of which were filled with apples and other fruits. Zelda bent a bit to take a leaf off a frog’s head, but as soon as she touched it, a korok appeared and gave her a good scare.

“Yahaha! You found me!” said the korok with a high-pitched voice, holding a branch with two leaves that rotated to keep their owner afloat. “Oh, you are not Mister Hero!” the it added, amazed, “you see me and you are not Mister Hero, so more people can see us now, yahahey!”

“Is everything all right, Your Majesty?” asked Cado, who had approached to start his guard shift. “Do you intend to make an offering, should I look for some apples?”

“I, uh, I am ok, thank you”, answered Zelda, looking at the korok while it giggled and shook its mask, a leaf cut to look like an angry face. “Do you know about the koroks, the children of the forest?”, she asked.

“I have heard of them, yes”, replied Cado and stroked his beard. “Legends say that they come from the Lost Woods, but that they can be found anywhere the land is healthy. I think they like to pull jokes, too. Why do you ask?”.

Zelda smiled. “Nothing in particular, I just remembered them”, she replied and said goodbye before taking the stairs to the main door.

Impa greeted her and approved her clothing choices with a smile. Paya brought some food and left them alone to take breakfast and talk. Despite Zelda had had the ability to oversee the land from the castle, there were so many things she had missed that soon enough she wished Link didn’t arrive and the conversation never ended. Impa told her about the dispute between the sheikah and the other races over the failure of the ancient technology, she described the struggles to build their lives again, the danger of the roads and how they had overcome them, the population recovery, the long grief for the lost ones and the weight of the wait. 

“We felt powerless here, constrained to this small refuge, scared of the monsters and the guardians roaming outside”, said Impa with a very sad voice. “We desperately wanted to help you both, but we could not do much. We could not approach the castle because we were not strong enough, and none of us dared to intervene the system of the Shrine of Resurrection to help Link recover faster, because we feared to damage any part of it and cause his death”. Impa took a moment to breath and hold a tear. “I am very sorry, princess”.

“Don’t be, don’t worry, you did the best you could”, said Zelda, moved, and took one of Impa’s hands. “We all did the best we could, if it took us this much, it was because Ganon was too powerful and nothing else”. She smiled at Impa to reassure her. “You all have been resilient and brave, you have done everything but fail me and I am thankful for your efforts and your faith”.

“My dear child”, said Impa and put her other hand over Zelda’s. “You are truly a blessing from the Goddess”.

“We will make it right, Impa. Now that Ganon has been defeated, we can rebuild what he took away from us, and we will make it even greater”.

Zelda noticed a shade of sadness on Impa’s eyes, as if she knew something that doomed their dreams to fail. Maybe it was the pessimism that came naturally after so many years of frustration and danger. Confronted by the deep sorrow on that old face, Zelda promised herself to make it up for Impa, so she could feel safe and relieved in a healed world, where koroks played everywhere and nobody had to worry about monsters on the road. She owed that to all her people.

“Your Majesty, grandma”, called then Paya, opening the main door. “Master Link has arrived”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Great Deku Tree could very well grow wooden legs and walk just to see that smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I added that reference to Ocarina of Time, no, I am not ashamed for it and yes, I will be adding more references to past games in the next chapters, lol.

After sending the princess to Kakariko, Link scouted the whole castle and the field around it to make sure Ganon had disappeared completely. He found three stalker guardians still on, roaming around the courtyard, and decided to destroy them, even if they didn’t seem hostile anymore. The fight against their automatic defense mechanism drained all the energy he had left, so he made a fire to rest for a bit and let his beloved steed, a reddish-brown mare called Malon, to scarf all the carrots.

He left at midnight, making only a brief stop at the Outskirt Stable to get another horse for princess Zelda. He was glad to find that only the owner was awake, and he didn’t make any questions, which was a real bliss. People would probably freak out in excitement when the sun rose and the roads revealed themselves free of monsters, so Link had better arrive to Kakariko soon, if he wanted to avoid the general uproar.

“And there you go” said the man, handing Link the reins of a fat grey horse called Talon. “Thanks for, for…” he added and then stopped for a yawn, “…choosing us for all your horsey needs”.

Link had meant to go after the white stallion he had heard about in that same stable, so the princess could have a mount just as royal as the one she rode back in the days, but he discarded the idea because it may have taken too much time. Looking at the horse’s heavy face and lazy attitude, he deeply regretted his decisions. Was it too late to go chasing after the white one?

“My grandfather told me that he once saw the royal family’s white horse grazing on Safula hill”, had said the old guy, Toffa was is name, several moons ago, “the thing is… just the other day, one of our customers said he saw a white horse on Safula Hill recently, could it be a relative of the royal family’s white horse from my grandfather’s day?”

Without the sheikah slate, Safula Hill was too far away. It couldn’t be helped. Link tied Talon’s reins to Malon’s saddle and continued his way to Kakariko, finding himself taking detours and going way slower than usual. He didn’t want to face the princess again just yet, because he had no idea how to act or what to say. As far as he remembered, princess Zelda and he had been close, so much that she dared to ask him to lick a frog as if it were nothing. It was the funniest memory he had recovered from the muddy pond that was his brain, and it made him laugh (and cringe) every time. He knew that they had traveled together a lot; they had worked to rise an army of guardians, he had protected her from monsters, she had taken care of his wounds. They had to be good friends, right? Or was all that within the boundaries of a normal princess-knight dynamic? What if he overstepped by accident and disappointed her?

He needed references and he had none. Prince Sidon and King Dorephan of the Zora, the only actual royalty he had contact with, didn’t have any escort. Prince Sidon was an apt warrior by himself and the king didn’t even leave his throne, so they didn’t need any help. Maybe the customs of Hylians were more like the Gerudo’s and Link should try to be for princess Zelda what that soldier, Buliara, was for chief Riju. The task seemed overwhelming, Buliara was fierce and overprotective, princess Zelda would probably find that attitude annoying. Link groaned. If only the princess’ eyes didn’t look so eager, if it wasn’t so evident that she had big expectations!

Besides, only the Goddess knew what princess Zelda had planned for him, now that Ganon wasn’t a treat anymore. Although Link did want to help as much as he could to give the inhabitants of Hyrule some well-deserved tranquility in a brand new, improved kingdom, right at the moment he was exhausted, bruised and burnt. Was it presumptuous to assume he had done enough to earn some rest, a pair of weeks dedicated to fish in Lurelin Village? It didn’t seem too indulgent to take a bath under the sun, to breath without the guilt pressing his chest. A good night on the beach, hearing the murmur of the palm trees and the songs of the ocean. He could almost smell the salt in the air if he closed his eyes.

Link snapped out of his dream right before falling off Malon. They had stopped for no apparent reason at the entrance of Kakariko, in front of the first wooden arch, whose eye at the top looked at Link with coldness. The morning sun was hidden behind heavy clouds, it was about to rain.

Confused, Link looked around him. Maybe the horses knew that he needed a moment to compose himself and get his thoughts straight. Grateful, he leaned forward and hugged Malon’s neck, tapping her beneath the long red mane. The warm fur of the mare made him feel reassured. Everything was going to be all right, princess Zelda was a kindhearted and wise leader who wished the best for everybody, and that included him. They could work things out, no doubt.

The skies rumbled and the rain fell like a waterfall on his back, pattering on his metallic weapons. He loved the rain, even if it made climbing very hard, because it felt refreshing, like a cleansing spell. Even so, he knew he had to hurry and find shelter before attracting the lightening, so he sat properly, stretched his arms, put on the hood of his Hylian cape and stirred Malon to enter Kakariko Village.

The rain had scared everybody out from the streets, which relieved him, as he didn’t want to deal with any enthusiastic passer-by. It was a shame that there was not a proper stable inside the village, though, the horses would have to endure the storm. Link dismounted in front of the little pond around the Goddess statue and tied Malon and Talon to a wooden pole before removing their saddles.

“Do you need some help?”, he heard behind him as he folded Talon’s blanket. He turned around and found princess Zelda there, indifferent to the rain but looking a little upset. Link noticed she had got some new clothes, although she wasn’t wearing a cape. He had to suggest her find a cape.

The princess moved and Link realized he hadn’t given her an answer yet. Slightly alarmed, he shook his head and the princess pursed her lips. Was that trouble? Link glanced at Impa’s house and saw Paya on the window with a worried look in her face.

“Let’s go inside”, said princess Zelda as she approached a little bit. Link held the horses’ tack tightly, “it is dangerous to be outside with this weather”.

She took two saddlebags from Link’s arms and headed to Impa’s house. He stood in the rain, bewildered, until a spark of lightning jumped off his shield and urged him to move.

The princess entered the building with the saddlebags, but Link decided to let the rest of the tack under the roof outside, along with his dripping cape. When he opened the doors, he saw Impa sitting on her stack of pillows, as usual, while Paya took charge of Link’s bags and princess Zelda waited near the old lady, with her arms crossed.

“Good job, Hero of Hyrule”, said Impa with a sweet smile, “you have saved the kingdom and we owe you our gratitude”. Link let the doors close and smiled faintly, attentive of the princess’ reactions. “Come and make yourself comfortable, the weariness on your face tells me you need to sit down and rest”.

Link nodded and walked towards one of the cushions laid in front of Impa, but he stopped in his tracks when he realized the princess was still standing. He should not sit while she was standing, that much he remembered. Even though his whole body complained, Link forced himself to remain calm and stood at attention, waiting for the princess orders.

“What are you… oh!” she said, when she realized what was going on, “oh no, please, there is no need for this ceremony right now”. She rushed to sit on a cushion herself and Link felt tempted to smile. He fought the impulse back and went for the cushions, crashing on them with a contained sigh of relief.

“I have not seen you this pale in a long while, Link”, commented Impa humorously. “I have to ask you to bear with us for a little longer, though, there are some matters that we must solve immediately”.

The princess wanted to know the current state of the Hylian settlements across Hyrule, so she interrogated Link about his impressions during his travels and the people he had met. He answered as briefly as he could, which was not hard, since he didn’t have much to say: most of his quests had taken place in the territory of the other races and he had not spent a lot of time in the Hylian towns. He had bought a house in Hateno, but he used it as a place to store weapons and never stopped by for long. Even so, the princess seemed to find the information useful. She explained that she was not able to get the full scope of what was happening while she was in the castle, so she needed what she was being told to decide how to approach the people and foresee what they could be expecting from her. 

“I am not sure the royal family mean much for the new generation”, she admitted with concern, “people have built their lives under the guidance of new leaders and by the rules of new kind of governments, after all”. She didn’t want to force anybody to join a unified kingdom, but she found critical to reunite forces so the Hylians didn’t live in danger anymore.

“You must not look down on your power, my dear”, said Impa. “You have brought safety back to our lands and most of the towns will cherish you for it. They will follow your lead because you give them hope and safety thanks to your connection with the Goddess”.

“That, if they believe it was us who defeated Ganon”, replied the princess, not so convinced. “There were no witnesses to our battle, I would not find surprising to meet more than one skeptic along the way”.

Link took a deep breath. That would suck, for sure, but the princess had an aura of power, like a light coming from within her, so strong that it would make very difficult for anybody to dismiss her words. She was worrying too much and the Master Sword was feeling very heavy on Link’s shoulders now. He shook his head to fight the fatigue. Paya, who had been moving around the second floor, came downstairs and took a seat behind him.

“Are you all right, Master Link?” she asked with a whisper. He nodded weakly. “Do you want something to eat? Maybe some simmered fruit?”

Link glanced at Impa and the princess, then decided to refuse the offer with a shake of his head. Paya blushed. “Are you sure?”, she asked.

“Link?” called princess Zelda, “what’s the matter?”

“I, I am sorry!” exclaimed Paya and got up with a jump. “I am concerned by Master Link’s health, I am very sorry, I wanted to offer him a healing meal!”

“It is time for lunch anyway” said Impa with a conciliatory tone. “now that Link has told you most of what he knows, Zelda, I think it is wise to treat his wounds and let him rest”.

“He doesn’t have serious injuries, does he?” replied the princess with alarm in her voice, “do you?”

Link gave her a comforting smile and got up slowly. He was cold and tired, but he had no major wounds to worry about, thanks to Mipha's Grace and the fairies he had taken with him to battle. He owed a lot to those little creatures, about Mipha... he shooed his thoughts away. He had something to say before going, but he didn’t know how to put it right into words.

“There is a town…” he muttered, hesitant. “People worked together to build it. It’s called Tarrey Town. I… think that people will settle around the castle if it’s done the same as Tarrey Town, with the cooperation of all the races”.

The princess' face lit with enthusiasm. When they started speaking, Link had expected her to know about Tarrey Town, but the conversation had made evident it was otherwise, probably because her fight with Ganon had got more difficult around the time the place was being built.

“Why didn’t you mention it earlier?” she said as she stood up. “Tell me more about this place. Where is it? Who planned it? How is it that all the races are involved? Are you ok?”

Link was struggling to suppress a yawn. The scene made Impa laugh, much to princess Zelda dismay. Link would have laughed too, if only he didn’t feel so drained. He rubbed his face to wake up a bit and then nodded to appease the princess. She was a good person that had one thousand thoughts per second running on her mind, that was all.

“Thanks for everything, once again”, said the princess, overcoming the embarrassment, “sorry for keeping you like this, go get some food before crashing the bed!” she ordered, and then she giggled with a beautiful smile.

The Great Deku Tree could very well grow wooden legs and walk just to see that smile. Link chuckled at the mental image, shook his head and bowed to the princess before heading up to the kitchen at the back of the house, where a double plate of simmered fruits was waiting for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a sense, she felt as she could protect him with a constant watchfulness, casting away the danger with her power if she followed every step on his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the slice of life genre, because I am enjoying my time writing all the small things. Also, it's too bad Kakariko's inhabitants have schedules, or I could bump them in the game to the terrace and recreate the final scene.

Link insisted on staying at Shuteye Inn instead of occupying the bed Zelda had used the night before. She didn’t see the point to it, but she let him go after he swore he didn’t need treatment to his wounds. Back at Impa’s house, thinking of Link’s very tired face and well-concealed-yet-still-noticeable irritation made Zelda feel self-conscious. She had been selfish, after all, forcing him to stay and answer all her questions after the terrible battle and the long trip he had endured. She was not tired or hurt because she had fought from a different realm, inside the seal that had kept her alive for so many years, but he had put all his physical strength into the fight and was obviously wrecked.

Deciding that making herself feel bad about it wasn’t going to take her anywhere, Zelda took the sheikah slate to check the upgrades and get used to the interface again. Paya offered her some simmered fruits for lunch, and Zelda took her plate to the pond behind the house to work in some privacy, now that the storm had become a drizzle.

The slate had been the most valuable tool she had before the Calamity and she was sure its properties would be critical for the kingdom’s revival. The Magnesis rune worked as usual, but the Stasis one had had some improvements: it could stop living creatures in time now! Zelda giggled in excitement when she could freeze a firefly in plain flight. Purah was a genius, she had to ask her all about the development of that innovative function as soon as they met. Zelda also saw the Bomb runes featured some enhancements, but didn’t consider it wise to try them at Impa’s backyard. 

She then opened the Hyrule’s Compendium to look for more novelty. Apparently, the Shrine Sensor had been modified to look after Tabantha wheat. Zelda frowned, confused; she was sure the sensor couldn’t track anything besides shrines before. She browsed the menu to see what else the slate could search for and found a whole list of plants, mushrooms and animals available.

“This is extraordinary!”, she exclaimed out loud, moving through pictures showing cane sugar, a durian, some radishes, a big deer, a fox, truffles of all colors, and then rock salt, luminous stones, a wooden chest. It seemed that the slate could track anything, always that it was recognizable in a picture. Zelda refrained from squealing while she imagined the possibilities and then stumbled on a picture of Link, dressed in a tight, bizarre outfit that had a skeleton painted all over it with luminous dye. He was posing with a smile in the middle of what seemed to be a group of stalizalfos, none of which showed an aggressive attitude towards him. The picture was saved in the compendium as “Lizal Forked Boomerang”, which probably was one of the weapons the monsters were carrying.

The scene was ridiculous. Zelda zoomed in to see the details of Link’s weird outfit and the child-like spark of joy in his eyes. He was so proud of his trickery that he had taken a picture of his triumphant self, unbelievable! Zelda laughed for a while and took her eyes away from the slate to appreciate the spiky surface of the pond in front of her. The water looked black under the rainy sky.

Back in the castle, she had thought that, despite not being able to encompass the whole kingdom with her sight and missing most of the details, she knew about everything Link was doing. In a sense, she felt as she could protect him with a constant watchfulness, casting away the danger with her power if she followed every step on his way. Even so, she had missed nothing less than a stalizalfos party, and the Goddess knew what else. It was to be expected, for her power was not infinite, but it was also a little heartbreaking.

Shaking those thoughts away, Zelda went back to check the rest of the compendium and noticed some bookmarked files. They were pictures that she had taken before the Calamity, the ones that she had secretly left behind to help Link recover his memories. Looking at them in the present, Zelda found the whole idea just stupid. Why hadn’t she left more pictures? Some text, maybe? There ought to be a way of writing in the slate, each entry of the compendium had an explanatory paragraph, so it was evident that it could process text. Ganon was not an excuse, if she had had time to select twelve pictures, she could have selected thirty.

It was no wonder that Link was acting strange. It was impossible to remember a whole life just looking at twelve pictures of random, isolated places. If he was not the same, it was because she hadn’t made sure he could be the same. What an idiot, it was all her fault and now it was too late. Zelda wasn’t even sure about how much time had passed between Link’s awakening and the battle against Ganon, but it had been long enough for him to fill the blanks with experiences that didn’t belong to Zelda’s world anymore. She had lost him.

Holding back her tears, Zelda tried to find solace thinking that, at least, Link was alive. She had ensured his survival and the fate of the kingdom with it, as her duty was. He could find happiness in the world they had rescued, because she had given him that second chance. That was it. A chance. Zelda wanted to slap herself, but instead, she took a deep breath. She was being dramatic, she had a chance too. Nothing stopped her from telling Link all about their past and see what would happen, because they had prevailed over Ganon and that was what mattered. 

She turned the slate off, hung it from her belt and tried to clear her mind. She couldn’t afford the luxury to become a crybaby. Priorities first: unify the Hylian settlements, renew the alliances with the Zora, the Goron, the Gerudo and the Rito, then rebuild Castle Town with their help. She had to find a way to protect the castle from bandits and treasure hunters until she could do all of that, too, as well as taking decisions regarding the Divine Beasts and the rest of sheikah technology. A meeting with Purah and his colleague Robbie was of the most importance, because a controversy over the destiny of the machines was bound to rose and she needed to be prepared. She had learned from the legends ten thousand years ago; the sheikah could not be put at risk and their well-being depended on whether she was capable or not of convincing the authorities of each race that keeping the technology was the best thing they could do.

Zelda sighed. She missed his father. He was excellent at keeping a cold head, no matter how grave the situation was. With another deep breath, she took the sheikah slate again and opened the map to plan a route and gather some more information.

Paya came looking for her after several hours, when the rain had passed and the sun was about to disappear. She was so quiet that Zelda didn’t notice her presence until the girl, unsure of what else to do, cleared her throat and gave her a good scare.

“I am sorry!”, said Paya, covering her face, “I didn’t want to startle you, please forgive me, I am very sorry!”

“It’s fine, don’t worry”, said Zelda and got up. “I guess it is time for the dinner to start, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, the people of the town asked me to summon you.”

Zelda gave her a reassuring little smile and indicated her to lead the way with a gesture of her hand. Paya, still embarrased, hopped into motion and guided her to an open terrace next to the High Spirits Produce store, where, if Zelda remembered correctly, the old woman Trissa worked as a vendor. It was a lovely place with a view to the river and one of its waterfalls, already filled with people sitting around two big wooden tables. They had lit some torches around the terrace and the cooking pots placed at the entrance let out the delicious smell of steamed mushrooms and what probably was a vegetable soup. 

Her stomach growled in anticipation, surprising her. She hadn’t given much thought to it, but the night before she had eaten for the first time in one hundred years. The transition for her body was going smoothly, but her mind was a bit slow catching up with the signals for hunger, tiredness and the other bodily needs. Before she could reflect on it, though, the sheikah noticed her and welcomed her to the dinner, offering the seat at the head of the biggest table.

“Please, Your Majesty, try this Carrot Stew, made with the finest of our fine Swift Carrots”, asked Steen, the farmer, and put a bowl in front of Zelda.

“Oh, no, Your Excellence, better try this amazing Pumpkin Stew, prepared with the best Fortified Pumpkins my crops have to offer”, said Olkin, the other farmer, and handed her another bowl.

“What do you think you are doing, Olkin?”, demanded Steen, taking Olkin’s bowl away, “Your Majesty can’t have two stews, she may eat only the best and that is the one I made!”

“Your carrots will make her sick, Steen”, replied Olkin and took the other bowl, “they are too high in sugar, nobody can stand them.”

“Please,” said Zelda, “there is no need to fight over this.”

The men, submerged in a furious stare battle, ignored her. Zelda looked around for support and noticed Impa, walking slowly to the terrace with the assistance of one of her guards, the one named Cado, who was carrying three red cushions.

“What is the fuss about?”, asked the old lady, tilting her hat backwards and squinting her eyes to see the two men hovering over Zelda, “don’t tell me you are going on again with this ridiculous dispute of yours.”

Olkin and Steen cleared their throats, let the bowls in front of Zelda and moved to their seats, without breaking the stare contest. Impa sighed and scrutinized the rest of the crowd.

“We are still missing two people, I see, and I know very well who’s fault is that they have not arrived yet”, she said, “Cottla, Koko, my dear children, can you go to the inn and give Ollie a good shake? Tell him he has made Master Link late to the princess’ dinner.”

“Yes, yes, it will be fun!” screamed Cottla, jumping off her chair, “I will give Ollie a terrible scare!”

“But we must wake Master Link up first, or he will be scared too!” said Koko, running towards her sister, “let’s take honey candies to his bed.”

“Yes, yes, let’s give honey candies to Master Link and ask him to scare Ollie for us, it will be so much fun!”

“Wait!” exclaimed Zelda, standing up her chair, “shouldn’t we let Link sleep? He had a very rough battle and…”

Zelda didn’t find the words to continue and felt suddenly exposed. She wanted to sit down again, but it seemed awkward. Fortunately, Rola broke the silence when she stood up and smiled to Zelda.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty”, she said, combing a bang of her hair behind her ear, “if I have learned something about Master Link, is that he will choose food over sleep any day!”

Zelda, although embarrassed, laughed along with the sheikah. Not even ten thousand years could erase Link’s love for food, that much she knew. The kids went running to the inn while Impa and Cado made their way to Zelda’s table. Cado piled up the cushions on the chair at Zelda’s left hand and helped Impa sit on top of them. How old and fragile she looked, but at the same time, how full of life, wisdom and strength. Zelda was lucky to have Impa at her side, she made the world feel less foreign. Impa caught her staring and both smiled.

“I am so glad you are back, dear,” said Impa and offered her hand. Zelda held it and felt comforted instantly “everything will work out just fine.”

“Thanks, Impa,” answered Zelda, squeezing her fingers just a bit. “I have something to confess.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t care if it’s made of pumpkins or carrots, I don’t want any stew.”

Impa had a good laugh. People were chatting enthusiastically, offering toasts to Zelda’s return and sharing big plates of steamed mushrooms and rice balls. After a while, Ollie appeared, all sweaty, trying to avoid Cottla, who screamed and jumped around him, wearing a bokoblin mask that had a striking resemblance with the real monsters.

“Oh dear, where did you get that atrocity?” asked her father Dorian, going after her.

“Master Link gave it to me!” said Cottla, jumping around the cooking pots, “I am a terrible bokoblin now, oink, oink, rawr!”

“Take that mask off right now, young lady.” Dorian didn’t seem amused at all, “bokoblins are monsters.”

Cottla took a branch from the floor, wielded it around like a maze and squealed at the top of her lungs before running away from her father as fast as she could. The crowd didn’t know if laugh or demand Cottla to stop; Ollie, free from his persecutor, let out a sigh of relief and lied back on the terrace’s handrail. Almost immediately, he let out a scream of terror and jumped on the nearest chair.

A moblin’s head had appeared in between the poles of the railing. It wiggled its ugly snout towards Ollie, growling and shrieking as if it wanted to maul him right there. Zelda left her chair and stood up on her tiptoes to see the thing, catching a glance of Link’s blue eyes under the mask. Unbelievable.

“Ok, that’s enough!” exclaimed Dorian, catching his daughter at last. “Master Link, this is improper of a hero like you!”

Everybody fell quiet. Link took a step back and removed his moblin mask. He was wearing a blue sheikah armor set, probably to be able to catch Ollie off guard easily, since, as Zelda remembered, that outfit was enhanced with sheikah technology to suppress sound. Without a moment of doubt or any sign of protest, Link made a small bow at Dorian, closing his eyes. The gesture seemed to appease the sheikah guard, who then focused on taking the bokoblin mask off Cottla’s little hands while Koko, appearing at last, tried to calm them both.

“It took you long enough,” said Impa with a smile when Link sat in front of her, at Zelda’s right hand. “Did you get some rest, hero?”

Link nodded. Despite the incident, he was in a very good mood. Before Zelda could say anything to him, though, Rola arrived with a huge plate of curry rice and caught all his attention.

“Bon appétit”, said the woman with a flirtatious voice.

With sparkles in his eyes, Link received the plate, utterly ignored the fact that Rola had winked at him and removed the mask of the sheikah armor from his mouth to assault the dish, but then he decided to look at Zelda and caught her staring. They stayed like that for a second and then he blinked, looked at his meal and then at her again.

“Eat, don’t worry,” she told him.

Link put on a wide smile, nodded in her direction and obliged. Zelda looked at her own plate and realized she didn’t want to eat anymore. If only she could hold Impa’s hand again!

“Ask for dessert.”

Link’s voice took Zelda by surprise. She looked at him and found him with the mouth full of rice. He hurried to chew and swallow so he could speak again.

“Lasli makes amazing fruitcakes.”

Fruitcakes. Her body reacted, reminding her that those were her favorite. Back in the days, she had told that to Link once, when he accompanied her to a break after hours of studying the mechanism of Divine Beast Vah Medoh.

“If you say so, I may give it a try,” she answered, entertaining a thought that made her smile, “it has been a long time, after all.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It gets worse,” he told her, “the first time I encountered a Rito, for example, I asked him if he was a bird.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Jeremy from CinemaSins yells at me from the distance*
> 
> Thanks to you all for letting comments and kudos, I appreciate them quite a lot. Share some more thoughts and appreciation for BOTW with me in Tumblr, you can find me on yabanned.tumblr.com

Food made everything better. Pleased after several plates of different dishes, Link lied back on his chair and looked at princess Zelda, who was taking her time to enjoy a slice of fruitcake. She seemed to stop and analyze the flavor and the texture of every bit she ate, taking delight in the difference between layers, the disposition of the pieces of fruit, the consistency of the cream and so on. In some way, she appeared to be remembering the pleasure of tasting a sweet dessert, or maybe, the mere joy of being free. And alive. An overwhelming relief rendered Link unable to stay still, he needed to jump, to scream and let the steam out, but he stood quiet, biting his lip to hold back a smile and tapping the floor with his left foot. 

It had worth it. Link had given everything he had to assist the princess in the fight without hesitation, he knew from the beginning that he had to get to her no matter what, but he had also doubted all along the way. He had feared that she couldn’t make it out of the castle, that the malice had consumed her body and her mind would vanish with it. The princess had been very brave, she had never asked him to rescue her, just to fight for the land, but with every little memory he recovered, and especially with every time he remembered a friend in front of their grave or while it was explained to him how they had died one-hundred years ago, he prayed that the princess was not gone. Even if he didn’t remember much of her, Link needed princess Zelda to be safe and sound at the end of the race, and there she was, finishing a slice of fruitcake.

“It was amazing, as you said”, she noted, as if she had been testing a scientific hypothesis. “I may ask Lasli to make some more for the way.”

Link chuckled. So much for feeling accomplished when the job was still so far from done. He thought of Lurelin Village once again. One moon, that was all he wanted before undertaking the next journey, in which he saw himself mostly as a burden: he was better with the sword than with words, but from that point on, there would be no monsters, just a lot of people to talk to. 

“I have designed a route for our diplomatic mission”, explained then princess Zelda, using a slightly louder voice to catch Impa’s attention, since the old lady was about to snooze, “I would like to show it to you both tomorrow morning, to adjust it on time and leave in the afternoon.”

“How so?” asked Impa with a worried face, “do you really plan on leaving this soon?”

“The rebuilding of the kingdom is urgent,” answered the princess with a soft yet imposing voice, “this is a critical time that we can’t let pass.”

Link stretched his neck and shoulders, easing the pressure that the Master Sword put on his back. The sword felt restless, so much that he had decided to carry it despite not being in danger while staying Kakariko, but it didn’t want to say anything.

“I understand, my child, but it may be unwise to jump into action so quickly, you need to put yourself first”, said Impa in the meantime.

“I am not sick”, replied the princess, frowning a bit. Link knew that Impa was referring to another thing entirely, but he had noticed already that princess Zelda took most things quite literally, maybe because she was too practical.

“But you are not well, either. I heard you cry.”

“Impa!”

Alarmed, princess Zelda looked at Link. He blinked slowly and downed his head a bit, to assure her he didn’t think less of her for crying. Hell, he would suspect her soul was missing if she didn’t cry at least once. 

“Don’t blush so hard,” said Impa, severe, “you are blessed with the light of the Goddess but you are still one of us, you may be older than most of the people in this village, but you are still new to the world. Don’t try to act like a perfect machine, you are not one of the Divine Beasts, Zelda, you need rest and solace.”

“I don’t, I would never…”, replied the princess, but she was at loss of words. She clutched her fists under the table. That was a gesture of hers that Link could recognize, he knew he had seen it a lot in the past. The sensation of being at the edge of remembrance was very unsettling for him, though, so he shook his head to make it go away and leaned forward the table.

“A breath of the wild can’t hurt”, he said. Impa squinted her eyes, clearly judging him, so he looked at princess Zelda to avoid her glare.

The princess gave him the subtlest smile. He gave her an embarrassed one back and averted his eyes again, this time looking at his hands. His fingers looked battered, with the scrapped skin covered in callus and the nails scratched, one so badly that it might fall off entirely in a matter of days. If he was not going to the beaches of Lurelin, at least he wanted to be free to climb again. To leave and wander, as he was so used to, and the princess needed to do the same, she had been enclosed for too long. Impa let out a sigh.

“At least wait until our explorers come back to the village and bring us some news”, she asked. “The state of the roads is uncertain, we don’t know if the monsters will try to hide or riot after Ganon’s disappearance and the continuity of―.” 

“The monsters?” Link asked, looking at the old lady with a frown “there are not monsters anymore, they went away with Ganon.”

The women looked at each other. They seemed confused, even concerned, which didn’t make a lot of sense. For Link, the situation was straightforward: hundreds of years ago, the monsters had arisen as manifestations of Ganon’s power, growing in numbers as the Calamity came closer until it happened and they overran the land. If the very source of their life, Ganon, was destroyed, they all had to disappear too, and that was exactly what had happened the day before. That was why he had not encounter any on his way to Kakariko.

“I… I think they withdrew,” said the princess. “They probably reversed to a less aggressive state too, now that the malice isn’t around, but they didn’t disappear.”

“I believe I understand where you are coming from, Link,” added Impa with a serious look “but I am afraid the blin races are not Ganon’s creation, neither are the lizalfos or the lynels. I think Zelda’s guess is right, though, they may have been strengthened by the malice all these years and had to hide when it was gone.”

So that was the reality. It seemed logical, so Link shrugged; he had forgotten so much that he was used to be constantly wrong at that point. Besides, he liked that possibility better, it added excitement to the road. If it was true, he could still use his skills and collect materials for elixirs and he wouldn’t feel useless, standing behind the princess while she did all the talking. Link noticed then that she was looking at him with apprehension. She probably found his debunked belief about Ganon being the literal source of all evil to be ridiculous, and now she was trying to estimate just how dumb he had become.

“It gets worse,” he told her, “the first time I encountered a Rito, for example, I asked him if he was a bird.”

Princess Zelda gasped and averted his gaze; even by the light of the torches, it was evident she was blushing. Had he been rude or was the fact just that bad? Impa chuckled and palmed his tight. The princess looked at her in confusion.

“Oh, don’t give importance to it, one-hundred years of sleep surely cause some mess, but his head is working just fine”, said the old lady, giving Cado some signs to make him approach the group, “Link has been able to relearn and remember what he has needed, there are things lacking, yes, but he will recover them, I am sure of it.”

“Excuse me, Your Majesty”, said Cado then, speaking to the princess, and helped Impa get down the chair. Link stood up too, just in case they needed assistance, but they managed themselves. Before heading to her house, Impa looked at him.

“You have been neglecting some of my instructions, don’t think I haven’t noticed, Link”, she said. “Now that you must accompany Zelda in her mission, you may regret it. Have a good night, you two.” 

Link remained right where he was, petrified. What was Impa talking about? The princess was out of his visual range and remained silent, so he couldn’t see her reaction. The villagers, ready to leave, were picking up the dishes and organizing the chairs under the tables. It was not very late, but most of Kakariko’s inhabitants were used to lock themselves during the hours of darkness, seeking protection from Yiga Clan attacks. The little Koko approached Link with the bokoblin mask in her hands.

“Master Link,” she called, offering it to him, “my father asked me to bring it because Cottla was going to keep it for herself.”

“Uh, thanks Koko,” he answered and took the mask, forcing a smile. Koko was too cute and sensible to give her a scary worried face.

The kid smiled back, waved her hand to say goodbye and joined his father, that was in queue with other villagers to wish a good night to princess Zelda. Link observed the farewell, nodding automatically every time someone said something to him, until the last one of the sheikah left and he found himself alone with the princess. He had to leave too, but now that he didn’t have the excuse of being super tired, he didn’t know how. She looked at him in the eyes.

“I apologize,” he said, “I was too blunt.”

“It is me who has to apologize”, she answered and headed to the railing in front of the waterfall, “it must have been hard to wake up with no memory of who you were.”

Link walked towards her and stopped two steps behind her. It felt like the proper distance. He was still tense, waiting for the moment the princess interrogated him about the instructions he apparently was not following. She turned around and analyzed him thoroughly, without a clear expression in her face. He felt the urge to put the mask of his sheikah armor back on, but settled for hiding the bokoblin mask behind him. 

“I may acquire an armor set like the one you are wearing”, she commented and lay back on the railing, “it will be of use on the road.”

Well, she was not going to make questions. Trying to be subtle, Link took a deep breath of relief. He could suggest enhance the armor pieces with the help of Great Fairy Cotera, whose fountain was nearby, to make sure the Impa subject was completely let out of the conversation, but that could lead to actually visit the Great Fairy’s Fountain and he didn’t want to deal with all the smacking and splashing that came with it.

“I never used such a thing before the Calamity”, the princess added, “I didn’t see the need to do so.”

The situation turned a little awkward. Link couldn’t figure out what the princess was thinking.

“Say”, he murmured, “do you want to leave now?”

The princess looked at him, puzzled.

“I moved the horses to the shrine at the top of the hill, they are ready to go,” he explained, “I can pack all the supplies to leave in half an hour.”

The princess looked at the night sky. All of a sudden, Link remembered how the members of the Yiga Clan used some sort of spell to teleport out of danger and wished he knew their secret.

“We will leave tomorrow, as I said”, she declared at last and looked at him. “I don’t want to worry Impa too much.”

Link nodded. He had tried. There was still some urgency in the princess eyes, she was waiting for him to do or say something and he had no clue what could that be. There was also the possibility she wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

“When you were appointed as my knight, I found that blank stare of yours to be rude and intimidating”, said the princess with a pained smile and Link felt his guts cringe, “later, I learnt the reasons behind it, but it is still difficult to keep in mind you mean no harm.”

“I apologize.”

“Don’t be so formal” she asked and took one step forward. Link tensed and was tempted to move backwards, but it could come as rude, so he stood still. She offered her hands. “I know now that you remember much less about me than I expected, so before we leave, I would want to tell you a pair of things.”

Link extended his right hand towards Zelda, then he thought better about it, dropped the bokoblin mask and gave her both. The skin in her fingers was soft and felt a bit cold.

“You called me just Zelda,” she said, analyzing the bruises in Link’s fingers. “I say it because I notice how you avoid addressing me directly.” She looked at him in the eyes and clutched his hands with her fingers. “thanks to you, I learnt how to ride a horse and we raced through the fields when the rest of the royal guard didn’t watch. I won the last two races.”

Link looked at their hands, still together. He was calling her “princess” in his mind but he hadn’t realized that he was not saying it out loud. He remembered that he had advised some things to Zelda in the past, so she could ride her touchy white stallion during her research trips. Zelda. It felt better just to call her that.

“You love the rain and I like it as much as you do”, she continued, “but I am afraid of lightening.”

“Lady Urbosa wanted you to try her thunder helm and face lightning so you could overcome your fears,” Link added and carefully freed his hands of Zelda’s grip, turning them to hold hers instead, “but you didn’t agree.”

She tensed, Link didn’t dare to look at her face. Her hands were small, with short fingers. They looked naked without the rings and delicate gloves he knew that she used to wear. Link felt the uncertainty again, the horrible sensation of being at the verge of remembrance, and let go. She had tears in her eyes. Why?

“If I am being pushy is because I missed you”, she said with a broken voice and dried her tears with one hand. “Please tell me if I am being inconvenient.”

That she shed some tears for the Calamity was one thing, but to see her cry because of him broke Link’s heart.

“You are not,” he replied and took a step forward, “I am sorry I forgot, I, I don’t...” he stuttered, then gave up on words and hugged her tightly instead.

He had no idea if he was supposed or even allowed to hug her, or why he would care so much, but he wanted her to be fine and happy, just as she was while eating her slice of fruitcake. She was trembling, holding back her sobbing, but she hugged him back. He closed his eyes.

“I remember you saved me”, he whispered, “and I won’t fail you again.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “There is more to remembrance than just remembering,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Gods, I am sorry this took so long! Blame the finals, a cosplay contest and four cowboy costumes for horses I had to sew, lol. I am glad some of you read my BOTW ficlet collection in the meantime, as usual, I appreciate all your kudos and comments. Hope you enjoy!

Even if saying goodbye to Impa was saddening, Zelda couldn’t be more excited about leaving Kakariko. It felt like when she was about to go on a field research trip so many years ago, just that this time, instead of ancient machinery, she would rediscover the world itself. In addition, the time on the roads offered a good opportunity to continue the conversation with Link and tell him more things about the past. Zelda was sure she could retrieve his old self from within the amnesia if she was persistent enough, like an archeologist that spends years brushing the dust off an ancient treasure, and she couldn’t wait to start.

Their conversation the night before had been too short because of the hug, a gesture that Zelda didn’t expect of Link but that she was glad for. It showed that he cared and that was all she needed. Going downstairs, she chuckled when she remembered how he couldn’t hold her gaze after they let go. He was probably embarrassed, unsure if he had overstepped or not. In any case, Zelda had decided to go easy on him and had said goodnight, agreeing to meet at ten in the morning the next day to discuss the mission with the sheikah and recruit some of them.

It was a quarter past nine, Zelda could afford a little trip to the Enchanted Boutique to try on the sheikah armor set. If only she had some rupees! Claree had said that she could take everything for free, but it seemed abusive to get more stuff without paying, improper of the crown, at least. Maybe it was better to wait until some of the royal treasure was recovered, which should happen soon enough, as Zelda planned to stop first at the castle. That decided, a stroll around the town seemed to be the best option to pass the time, after all, she hadn’t stop to really observe it and spot the changes.

Zelda decided to go uphill and reach the place where she had appeared the night of the battle. It should present a neat view over the village, but she hadn’t seen it because it was dark already and she was too shaken to care anyway. The walk was lovely, even if the weather wasn’t the best and there were some cuccos roaming outside of their pen. Zelda didn’t like those birds and their big attitude, probably due to the fact a flock had attacked her when she was a little girl, just because she had plucked one feather out of one’s tail. Since the incident, letting a cucco loose around Castle Town entailed a fine of twenty rupees. A little too much, Zelda thought, but the owner had it well deserved. With a smile in her face, she went past the houses, crossed a bridge and made her way almost to the top of the hill. She stopped when she heard Link’s voice humming in between the heavy wheezes of a horse.

She deviated a little bit to peep out. Link, wearing a green Hylian tunic, was combing the grey horse’s mane while the mare ate apples from a basket. He seemed content, but tired. For some reason, he had the Master Sword in his back; Zelda recalled he had carried it during the dinner too. Maybe he slept with it at that point and that was why he looked so weary. The idea made her giddy and led to her being spotted.

“Good morning, there,” she said, “sorry if I startled you.”

Link answered with a small smile and went back to work. Zelda approached and caught the horse’s attention. He was heavy and seemed sleepy, with some bangs of his white mane covering his eyes. It was difficult to tell how old he was, but he definitely had seen his best days some time ago. The mare seemed livelier, she had a beautiful chestnut coat with a white stripe in the forehead and a thick red mane that was already braided. Zelda wanted to believe the mare was for her, but it had to be Link’s favorite steed, not in vain he had taken her to the battle with Ganon. 

“How are they called?” she asked, scratching the grey horse’s snout.

“Talon” answered Link, patting the horse’s neck, “and Malon.”

“Does this bad boy really sleep that much?”

Link looked at her, puzzled. Zelda considered to explain him that those names were recurring in old Hylian tales, belonging to a lively girl and his lazy father, but it seemed rather pointless. Besides, she had just noticed something strange.

“Link, why do you hold the brush with the left hand?”

He looked at his hand, then back at her and shrugged. 

“Is your right arm ok? Did you get hurt?”

He shook his head. Zelda was sure he wielded his weapons with the right hand, but now that she thought about it, Link had been using the left one to do mundane tasks, like eating, picking up plates, holding the bokoblin mask after the dinner and yes, he had also carried the sheikah slate on the left side. 

“Are you left-handed now, then?”

Link frowned. 

“To be left-handed is considered a bad omen, you know?” Zelda said, pensive, “and you were right-handed when I met you, I am sure of it, which means... maybe your parents forced you to change your dominant hand and now that you forgot, you went back to natural?”

“I don’t know.”

“It is strange, because you hold your sword with the right one, although, if my guess is correct, your father must have taught you how to wield it with the right hand from the beginning and, since it’s an acquired skill, it stuck with you even if… what?”

Link looked rather disturbed. The mare ate the last apple and started sniffing Link’s waist pouch for more, but he didn’t flinch. After a pair of seconds, he gasped, blinked hard, looked around him and then stared at the brush as if he didn’t know why he was holding it.

“Are you ok?” Zelda asked, a little concerned.

Link nodded, shooed Malon away and changed the brush to his right hand, then back to the left, then again to the right and tried to untangle a bang of the mane. He pulled too hard and Talon shook his whole body in protest.

“The bad omen thing is just a superstition,” said Zelda, “take it with the left if it suits you better.”

Link frowned, bit his lower lip and tried again. He had more luck, but his movements were still clumsy.

“I’ll work on it later,” he said and resumed the combing with the left hand.

“There is no need,” Zelda insisted, “what happened just now?”

He pursed his lips. It was getting late, they had to go to the terrace and meet with the sheikah soon, but something told Zelda this was important.

“Were you about to pass out?” she guessed, “you seem tired, are you feeling alright?”

Link nodded. Talon wheezed and whipped his tail, Malon answered with a soft neigh.

“It’s nothing, I just remembered…” he said and stopped the combing to look at the sky, “a day you were venturing theories about my earrings.”

That seemed random. Link’s earrings were indeed one of the first things she noticed about him; it was not common for Hylians to use that kind of jewelry so they had sparkled her curiosity back then, but that didn’t explain much.

“The memories are intrusive,” Link added in a low voice and continued what he was doing, “they take me out of reality; I… have been told I act weird when it happens, sorry.”

His ears turned red. Zelda didn’t know what to say. In one hand, he looked upset and she felt guilty because it seemed she had triggered the event. In the other hand, the fact that memories came to Link in a way so vivid he lost contact with reality when he was recalling was good news. Amazing news. While she considered the pros and cons, Link got the combing done, so he put the brush aside and started to braid Talon’s mane.

“Do you know what exactly triggers a memory?” she asked.

Link, twisting the bangs of hair with a skill that came from practice, took his time before replying.

“Images.”

“Like what? The pictures in the sheikah slate, for example?”

Link nodded.

“What was the image that started the memory you just had?”

Link finished his work, dust off his hands and looked at Zelda. There was certain hostility in his eyes, maybe frustration.

“It was you,” he said, “since you are here, memories have been trying to take over more frequently.”

Zelda arched her brow, he averted her gaze.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind remembering,” he said with a softer voice, “it’s just that the way it happens can cause disasters.”

The wording made Link sound like a brat, but he was just being practical and thinking about their safety on the road. He was right, a remembrance episode in the middle of a confrontation could only go wrong.

“We could sit down and try to get as many memories as possible” she proposed, “that way, you would experience them in a safe environment and wouldn’t have to worry about them later.”

Link looked back at her, arched his brows and blinked. He was swallowing down his disagreement, Zelda could see it. He looked down at Talon, who was biting the grass next to Zelda’s boot.

“Let it be, please,” he asked, “this one slipped in because I was off guard, but I have learned to prevent them.”

“What for? Do they hurt?”

Link raised his hands to Zelda’s eyes level and wiggled the fingers of the left hand first, then the right ones. There was not much difference between the two movements, just the necessary to know the left was faster. More skilled. Link stretched his fingers and offered his hands to Zelda.

“There is more to remembrance than just remembering,” he said.

Zelda’s heart skipped a beat. The old Link or the new Link, she had considered it a matter of her whim and nothing else. She had supposed he was in good terms with the situation and would just allow her to guide him back to what he was, to dust him off like an empty treasure chest. But he was not a piece of lifeless metal.

“This is wrong,” she complained and pushed his hands down, “you can’t make the choice or make me choose because you are ambidextrous now and we have to deal with it.”

Link laughed. Zelda had not heard his quiet, playful laugh in a hundred years. She wanted to tackle him, pull his ears, check if he was still ticklish in the back of his neck, but it would freak him out of trigger a bunch of memories that he didn’t want to see in cascade. Besides, they were late for the meeting already.

The sheikah were waiting for them at the same terrace of the night before. Zelda saw unfamiliar faces, including a couple of Hylian travelers. Impa was not present, only Paya peeked at them from one chair close to the waterfall. Zelda could have used some reassurance from the old lady, but she took comfort in having Link with her. She decided to take the straightforward approach her father would use in the same situation. She stopped close to the terrace and held her hands behind her back. The crowd went silent.

“Good morning, everybody, thanks for coming,” she said with a smile, “I will try to be brief: as you know, I will embark on a quest to rebuild the kingdom of Hyrule and unify the Hylian settlements. It will not be an easy task and I need resources to achieve my goal, so I am heading first to the castle to collect some of my family heirloom and my own personal belongings. I ask for your help to retrieve this treasure and bring it to Kakariko, where it will be safe from scavengers and available for the needs of the new nation. As I plan on rebuilding Castle Town, I offer you in return a plot inside the walls for you to build homes or business, and of course I will guarantee your safety during the whole operation.”

“I will assist you in everything you need, Your Majesty,” said Olkin the pumpkin farmer, standing up, “when would we leave?”

“The advance party may leave this afternoon,” answered Zelda and people started to murmur, “the rest can follow in the next two days, but not later.”

“How will you assure none of the parties will be attacked by monsters?” asked one of the Hylian travelers, “shouldn’t we travel together?”

“The monster’s numbers have decreased and we won’t see the Blood Moon anymore, but just in case, Link will escort both parties,” said Zelda, glancing at him. He rested his hands on the hilt of the sheathed Master Sword, that he was holding in front of him with the point lightly stuck on the grass. He was unfazed, looking at the crowd with his usual menacing, blank stare, “he will take care of any disturbance on the way.”

After another two questions, people organized quickly. The first party had eight people, counting Link and Zelda, while the second had twelve. It was way too few, but Zelda knew she had to be grateful there was even enough volunteers to form two groups. She gave indications to all the involved and send them to pack. When the last of them was gone, she let out a sigh.

“I am going to Impa’s,” she told Link, “do you want to discuss the route with us?”

“I will follow your lead,” he said and put the Master Sword on his back.

“Go take a nap then, you need to be rested,” she said and smiled to him.

He gave her a small smile back and stayed on his place when she walked towards the house.

It took some talk to convince Impa everything was alright. Zelda discussed her general route with her during lunch, adjusted her plan accordingly until it seemed solid enough and say goodbye feeling nostalgic, but confident. Link was waiting outside with some stuff in his hands.

“Is everything ready?” she asked, trotting downstairs, “did you sleep?”

Instead of answering, Link extended the things to her. Zelda got by his side and looked. It was a dark blue Hylian cape, decorated with gold and white embroidery, a quiver with several arrows and the Bow of Light. She blushed instantly.

“Oh, Link, this bow is yours, I am no archer.”

Link curved his brows upwards.

“It is true, I never learned to do it.”

Embarrassed, Zelda watched Link process the fact that he had made a wrong assumption, look down at the things he was holding and pout.

“Take the cape, then,” he muttered, “you will need it.”

Zelda obeyed. The cape was lighter than she expected, had an appropriate length and the color was nice. She wondered if Link had picked it by himself or if Claree had given him a hand. Instead of finding out, she thanked him and asked for the Champion Tunic, as she was expecting him to use it to lead the advance party.

“It teared on the back,” he explained.

“Can’t you ask Claree to sew it?”

“There is a better tailor in Tarry Town.”

Zelda guessed it couldn’t be helped. Link hung the Bow of Light from his back and ran for The Curious Quiver shop to give the quiver back to Rola. When they met again, he was flustered. Zelda bit down a smile. She didn’t need to ask, she was sure the woman had taken the chance to make fun of Link. She may have even throw a frisky comment on the middle of it, if she was seriously into him as it looked like during the dinner.

“I hope this doesn’t discourage you of giving me a gift in the future,” she joked while they walked towards the advance party, which was waiting at the entrance of the town.

“Learn to fight,” he answered, “I can teach you, with the right hand.”

“Thank you, but I didn’t know my power impressed you so little.”

Link blushed really hard. When they departed, Zelda was still laughing under her breath.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Come back,” she said, “I am here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprising no one, getting the Switch and the game itself lowered my productivity and fucked up my sleep schedule to the point I can barely function, but I promise this will continue, stronger than ever.
> 
> Also, I want to thank my friend Linipik on Tumblr because I find solutions to my story when talking to her. Check her blog out, she's not into Zelda but she's an incredible artist.

The first part of the trip was peaceful. They met Hylians that cheered them up or even joined the group, got good news from the stables and, besides some keese sleeping in their caves, didn’t see any monster. When they entered Hyrule Field, though, Link noticed that Zelda was having a tough time keeping it together. She would pull Talon’s reins, longing to get close to some ruins of a town that she had noticed from afar, or try to go to the back of the group to get some peace, as people was eager to ask her a lot of questions. When the temperature dropped, she hid her face under the Hylian cape.

They decided to pass the night at the Riverside Stable. Beedle the merchant was there, as well as Gotter, the man that had asked Link to retrieve a cooking book from the castle if he had the chance. Link didn’t have the cooking book ―he had not even bothered to look for it―, but the guy didn’t care at all because he had noticed the princess was there.

“I can’t believe my luck, oh, the Goddess has really blessed me with this vision,” he was saying, holding Talon’s bridle so Zelda couldn’t get off, “I have no doubt, you have to be our beloved princess Zelda, only you could be this beautiful, so much that I’m not afraid to declare, as the beauty expert I am, that you are the most beautiful being to ever grace this land.”

“That’s enough, Gotter” declared the owner of the stable, peeping out from his desk, “the beds are not going to get ready by themselves, you know? Besides, after Calamity Ganon, Her Majesty doesn’t need to deal with more pigs.”

“Who are you to talk, Ember?” yelled Gotter in return, outraged, startling the people around him “Your Majesty, please don’t listen to the words of this swine, he is very wrong if he thinks my appreciation of beauty carries lustful intentions with it.”

“Oh, come on,” complained Ember and gestured at Link, “hey, Hero of Hyrule, care to save the princess?”

Gotter turned pale, which ensued a round of laughter among the party. Link looked at Zelda, who seemed to be concerned about Gotter. She also looked weary, with her golden hair tangled and her boots and breeches covered in mud. The feeling of being at the edge of remembrance struck Link once again, but this time it was not a concrete memory what struggled to appear in his mind, but a vague sensation, something that made him giggly and unwilling to hide it, as he would normally do. He approached Gotter and the man let go of Talon’s bridle, apparently ready to start an argument, so Link raised his hands in a gesture of conciliation. 

“I am with you,” he told Gotter with a smile and people stopped laughing, “but Ze… the princess can’t pass the whole night on the horse.”

As if it was her cue, Zelda dismounted while people laughed again, some of them whistling too. Gotter clutched his fists and was about to head to the back of the stable when she stood on his way. 

“I am thankful for your appreciation and kind words,” she told him with a soothing smile, “please excuse the inconvenience.”

“None of this mess is your fault, Your Majesty,” Gotter replied and gave at the stable owner a nasty look, then glanced at Link, “I will make sure you have the best bed in this humble inn.”

As Gotter disappeared inside the stable, Link took Talon by the reins and drove him to the mangers, where Malon was already devouring a pile of hay. Link didn’t blame her, he was painfully hungry himself.

“Good job back there,” said Zelda behind his back, so he turned around and found her frowning in concern, “is this the way it is now, in the stables?”

“It depends,” he answered and patted Talon’s hindquarters to make him stand under the shed.

Zelda walked towards the calm waters of the Hylia River, which reflected the light of the early stars. Some cuccos and a goat slept in their pens behind the stable and the fireflies were starting to flicker here and there.

“Do you think is clever to stop now?” she asked, “the sheikah are faster at night.”

With the new recruits, the group was half Hylian, half Sheikah. Link glanced at them, chatting while they prepared a pair of tents to accommodate the people that didn’t fit inside the stable’s inn. The hills behind them looked sinister.

“We’ll do better in the morning,” he told Zelda, “eat something and ask for the soft bed, I will check the surroundings.”

“I prefer you to stay,” answered her, “we are safe in here.”

Link doubted. The Riverside Stable was not a troublesome place, but he had been thinking about the Yiga Clan since the advance party had left Kakariko. They had no leader, as the guy had accidentally killed himself during the battle against Link, and no reason to continue, since Ganon was gone, but something told him that they could try an ambush in revenge or just riot, motivated by desperation.

“Your Majesty, Sir Link, I made some pumpkin stew!” yelled Olkin, waving at them from one of the campfires.

“I hate that stew,” commented Zelda immediately.

The giggly sensation that Link had felt before came back in a burst of laughter. It was amazing how Zelda balanced royal manners and gentle speech with some brutal honesty. Surprised, she laughed along with him, not without some hesitation, and then indicated that they had to go because they were attracting some weird looks.

“I can cook something to make up for the stew,” he whispered to her.

Intrigued, Zelda arched a brow at him. Now that he thought about it, she had probably never tasted anything he had cooked in the past. He wasn’t even sure if he knew how to cook back then; in the present, he had made his way on the kitchen by trial and error without recalling anything, not even once. He shrugged and her smile widened.

“Ok, surprise me then,” she said.

The people of the stable had tons of questions and comments for them both, none of which Link had any desire to answer. He put himself into work to cook some glazed veggies so Zelda could handle most of the enquiries, nodding or shaking his head to compliment what she was saying. 

“Oh, so the mysterious slate is yours!” said Parcy, the bounty hunter, “I am so jealous, the hero could do wonders with it, I saw him propel explosive barrels to the bokoblin camps, it was so impressive!”

“He used it to rescue several chests from the bottom of the river, too,” added Ember, the stable owner, “and he opened the shrine just in front of here with it. I thought there was something great inside, but he told us that it was just some rubble and a chest with… arrows, I think?”

Link shrugged. He didn’t remember, that was only one of the dozens of shrines he had visited. They were mostly entertaining and had helped him learn a lot about the sheikah technology, as well as improving some of his combat skills. He resented a couple of them, as their difficulty was unreasonable, but he intended to look out for more when he had the time. Besides the good stuff that could be found inside them, he considered his duty to set all the monk spirits free, just as he had done with the four champions and King Rhoam himself. Link wondered if Zelda knew he had talked with the ghost of his father. Maybe it was better not to ask.

Instead, he handed her the glazed veggies and sat next to her, wishing that the conversation died soon. He felt restless, mistrusting every shadow under the moonlight, the Master Sword itching in his back. It had been grumbling since days ago, when Link arrived to Kakariko, but it had not said anything clear yet. Link had analyzed the blade to check if it was damaged, which would surely cause it distress, but everything was fine. He had also tried to reason with it, but it would not answer. 

“Hey, Link” called Zelda in a secretive tone, taking him out of his thoughts, “consider me surprised.”

He frowned and then noticed the empty plate on her hands.

“Yes, it made out for the other thing,” she answered to the question in his eyes, and then winked.

Simultaneously, Link saw Zelda blush and felt his own cheeks heating. He scratched the back of his head and babbled something about the food, then decided he’d better go and clear his mind while checking the surroundings at last.

The river was clean, as well as Whistling Hill. Close to the Bottomless Swamp, though, a stalking guardian was roaming. Link crouched and readied his shield. The ones wandering around the castle just after the Calamity disappeared were not aggressive, but he could not be sure. He had to dismantle it before the automatic defense mechanism reacted and he had to do it without making much noise, so the people back at the stable didn’t notice and nobody freaked out.

It didn’t help that the machine was guarding the top of the hill. Maybe from above, he could get an ice arrow to hit its eye and then, if he was quick enough, detach all the legs while the thing was still frozen. Revali’s Gale, that he had not used in a while, would come in handy. Link took a deep breath, as he always did before invoking one of the champions’ powers, and then realized.

It was not there. None of them was there. Where Link could feel the red-hot fury of lightning before, only coldness remained, the strength of the wind didn’t run across his lungs anymore and his fists didn’t offer any protection. He scraped the very corners of his soul, trying to find Mipha’s power even if he didn’t need it, but he found nothing. She was also gone.

When the automatic defense mechanism activated, the guardian had already lost three legs to the furious hits of the Master Sword. Before it could fire, Link climbed to its head and stabbed the eye with all his strength, then took the sword out and jumped to cut yet another leg. The racket would alert every foe on Hyrule Fields and scare the sheikah recruits to death, but Link didn’t care. The champions, that once freed had kept him company, saving him oh so many times, had left without a trace and he would never hear their voices again.

The Master Sword felt hot in his hands, vibrating in a swirl of confusing emotions. Blue sparkles jumped from the damaged guardian, that screeched as if it was alive, and some grass caught fire. Link hit and kicked until he realized that there was nothing left but a pile of wreck and broken pieces of ancient trash. He cursed. The thing had croaked too soon.

Link put the fires out and sat at the top of the hill, breathing heavily. The silhouette of the castle was visible from there, as well as the gigantic bones that framed the stinky waters of the Bottomless Swamp. If Impa and Zelda were right, there should be some moblins inside the titanic skull, cooking rotten fish and pushing bokoblins to their deaths for the fun of it. As nobody was coming from the stable, Link resolved he would pay the monsters a visit. He stood up and was about to go towards the bones when he heard Zelda’s voice inside his head.

 _Come back,_ she said, _I am here._

Link looked at the Master Sword in his hand. Its blade reflected the moonlight without a notch and it was quiet, at last, but the fact didn’t comfort him. It only added up to the terrible silence that covered the land, carrying an emptiness that threatened to swallow him whole.

 _Come back to me_ , Zelda insisted.

Link sighed. Come to think of it, the Master Sword would depart soon too. Its duty had been fulfilled and it had to be returned to its place of rest until the time came for its blade to shine again, if that ever happened. Link found it infuriating. He wished to throw the sacred blade into the depths of the swamp instead, to break the cycle and rise against the dreadful destiny of the hero. If the sword disappeared entirely, no one could be marked as the Chosen Hero ever again, nobody would have to carry with the unbearable guilt of the mistakes made on the way, the friends lost no matter the effort, the courage, the strength. The missing sword would become a fairytale and no man would face the loss, the void left by failure inside the heart.

_I am here._

The moon hid behind some clouds and the darkness covered the fields. Link lifted the Master Sword above his head. He knew that the blade would find its way back to the surface, he also realized that Zelda could not try to hide her name and her blood under the earth. Tired, he sheathed the sword and set forth on the way back to the stable.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I didn’t understand why we fled on foot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Witness my resurrection!

Zelda thanked the rain. It poured over the charred debris of Castle Town, erasing the marks the malice had left behind and calming the burn of memories in her head. The whole party advanced slowly, frightened by desolate view, following Link around piles of rubble, remainders of old houses and ominous carcasses of destroyed guardians.

He seemed more collected than the night before, but Zelda could sense his restlessness. She had tried to comfort him, explaining that the champion abilities were not necessarily gone, but maybe blocked, as it had happened with her own power before the Calamity. It had picked her curiosity, though, that lacking those powers was not what had Link troubled, but something else that she didn’t manage to get out of him. She guessed it had something to do with the champions as persons rather than their abilities, but as Link had lost his memory, she couldn’t be sure about how much he knew about their lost friends.

Thunders rumbled in the distance. Zelda held onto the reins of her horse, the castle looked threatening in front of them. The sheikah pillars were off, but still present, surrounding the building as if they were iron bars. Zelda remembered the words of Impa and had to admit she was right: it had been reckless to jump into action so quickly, to go head first into the overwhelming vision of the place that she had called home, only to become a prison she had had to guard for one hundred years. But now that they were there, she could not turn back.

“Listen,” she demanded when they arrived at the main gate. “I know this is a terrible sight, but we have come to fix it and that’s what you should be focusing on. The Guard’s Chamber inside the castle is the most stable part of the structure, we are going to gather there and use it as main room.”

“What if there are monsters inside?”, asked one of the Hylians, a girl that had joined them at the Riverside Stable, “that place used to be full of lizalfos.”

Zelda gritted her teeth. The girl would not know that if she wasn’t one of the bandits that had been plundering the castle. Was she there to help, or would she sneak at night with part of the findings?

“Master Link should go first to check,” proposed one of the sheikah, “he knows how to deal with monsters.”

“We have already spoken about this,” Zelda stressed and stirred the horse to reach Link at the front of the group, “stay together.”

She used the sheikah slate to open the gates and they started their way uphill. The rain got heavier and it became difficult to distinguish the path, but they advanced nonetheless until they reached the gardens of the garrison, the place where the soldiers used to gather when the supper bell rang. All the trees had died and the cobblestone had been wrecked and burnt by the guardian’s beams; to the right, the door to the Guard’s Chamber was closed. Link and Zelda dismounted at the same time.

“Don’t need to rush,” she told him, taking the sheikah slate out, “I can open it from here.”

She could feel his eyes following her as she accessed the lock system and changed the code. It was a bliss that the circuits still worked, they were her own creation, after all. As her father didn’t allow her to spend much time in the sheikah labs, not even the Royal Ancient Lab that had been built under his orders, Zelda had decided to apply what she learned in little projects at a time, using the castle as a guinea pig of some sorts. The lock system was one of the few creations that his father had approved, so it had been implemented in several doors.

“Let’s use the turret to shelter the horses, a thunderstorm is coming” she indicated when the door finally opened, “three people must stay with them at all times, understood?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” answered somebody.

“Team up as we organized to check the surroundings. Link, please go first to the Guard’s Chamber, I want it cleared as soon as possible.”

He nodded, stepped into the hall and then looked at her in a way Zelda could not decipher.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, frowning a bit.

“Purah said you didn’t really know much about ancient technology.”

Zelda froze. What was that supposed to mean? Link had a vague, unfinished smile that spoke of good intentions, but when he understood her outrage, he bit it off.

“Because the towers didn’t… but she’s a child now,” he stuttered, “she made herself a child with an ancient machine.”

“Your point?”

Link downed his gaze.

“She was wrong,” he muttered

Without further ado, Link took his bow out and readied three ice arrows. He had replaced the Bow of Light with a big, wooden one with detailed carving, the very same weapon Zelda had seen in the wings of Revali one hundred years ago. Seeing it up front again, knowing his owner was forever lost, made Zelda’s heart ache, adding the sadness to a ton of feelings that were about to overwhelm her. 

“I wait for your signal,” she indicated.

Link disappeared into the darkness of the hall. Zelda fixed her cape to protect her face from the rain and looked at the courtyard. The horses were all inside the turret and some people were fixing mangers for them out of broken wood boxes. A sheikah soldier had reached the top of the wall and struggled to see anything through the water curtain. It would be a long day.

Link didn’t find anything suspicious inside the Guard’s Chamber. Soon, people were going around, cleaning the floors, hanging the dripping coats on the old targets for archery practice, making tables out of broken shelves and securing the food in a safe, dry place under the stairs. It was great to see life coming back to the castle, but Zelda also found the noise a little disturbing.

“Princess Zelda,” muttered a Hylian mercenary, coming closer, “I don’t want to worry you or the group, but we found some lynel excrements back at the first gatehouse.”

“There were a couple of lynels living here, but both were slayed.” Zelda answered, glancing at Link, who was gathering weapons with the help of two sheikah.

“It didn’t seem to be more than a couple of days old,” the mercenary insisted, “we’d better prepare for an encounter.”

Zelda sighed. She really needed a moment of silence. Her original plan was to scout the castle with the help of the volunteers while Link rested, so he could make the way back to Kakariko during the night ―hopefully carrying some specific valuables she had as her priority―, but as it turned out, he was the only one skilled enough to tackle a lynel and there was no choice then but put him to work. Thanking and dismissing the mercenary, she called Link with a sign and commented the situation.

“I thought about tracking it with the sheikah sensor,” she said, holding the device in her hands, “but I noticed it distinguish the monsters by color, if we pick the wrong breed, we may miss it.”

“I will find it while it’s still raining,” Link declared.

“Are you equipped appropriately?” Zelda asked, “don’t you need assistance?”

Link nodded and then shook his head. Zelda didn’t like his fake serious face, she was also irritated by the fact that he seemed unable to actually articulate the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The memories of him destroying that stalking guardian the night before came back to her head.

“Did you ever try to use the stasis+ function on a lynel?” she asked. Link nodded. “And?”

“It stops them for a pair of seconds and leave them stunned.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I want to see it myself.”

He remained silent, with the body tense and that dead stare of his. Zelda hung the sheikah slate and crossed her arms. She was considering the convenience of telling him she just wished to go out of the chamber to clear her mind when Link took out the Master Sword.

“Don’t let anybody follow,” he asked.

An adrenaline rush ran through Zelda’s body, not because of fear, as a simple lynel could not scare her after facing the Calamity, but because excitement. Even if everything was destroyed and looked hopeless, the truth was that a century had passed, Ganon had been defeated and now she was free to move, to rule and confront the threats to her land and her people her own way.

Holding back a smile, she organized the people with a pair of commands, made them calm down with some words and let old Olkin in charge before putting her cape back on and follow Link into the storm. The first gateway was empty, as reported.

“Where do you think it could be hiding?” Zelda asked, peeping out the door to see the courtyard.

“The second gateway or the sanctum,” Link said, looking for something in his pockets. 

“The sanctum’s floor collapsed, remember,” she replied, “it may be hiding under the main bridge or in the library lawn, I think.”

“Let’s go to the second gatehouse first,” he said and then took a living thing that glowed with a bright pink light out of one of his pockets, “here.”

“Is that… a fairy?” Zelda asked, partially fascinated, partially horrified, “where did you find it?”

“I trust you won’t put yourself in danger,” he replied and offered the creature to Zelda, “but hold her close, just in case.”

“Link.”

He didn’t flinch. The fairy seemed very comfortable in his hand. Hesitant, Zelda offered her own and the fairy climbed to it. It was warm and extremely light; its wings so delicate Zelda couldn’t imagine how they survived inside a pocket. She had a big waist-pouch in her belt, but after a little thought, it seemed better to keep the fairy in her bodice.

“Let’s go,” she said once the creature was safe in place.

They ran to the second gatehouse, which was also empty. While Link checked the corners, Zelda took the sheikah slate to activate the sensor. 

“You don’t have pictures of blue lynels yet,” she complained, “what if this one is blue? Link?”

He was standing up, still, looking at the sanctum from the gate, with a grip so firm on his sword and shield it made his arms tremble. For a second, she feared the lynel was watching them from up there, but then she realized: Link was watching a memory.

Zelda approached slowly. She would normally be alright with Link remembering everything he could, but given the location and the tension in his body, it had to be a terrible vision, maybe something from the day Ganon had arisen. She had better take him out of that, if it was possible, and she could only think in one way to try.

 _Come back_ , she said without voice, pouring the words directly inside his head. 

Link shook and dropped the shield. He looked at her, agitated, then back at the sanctum.

“What did you see?” Zelda asked.

“Someone let the horses loose,” he replied, “someone let the horses out of the stables, on purpose.”

“What?” she almost screamed, fearing he was speaking about the present.

“I didn’t understand why we fled on foot.”

Both looked down. As Zelda remembered it, they had tried to reach Ganon, who presented himself hovering over the castle as a swirling dark cloud with a pig head, but they had been cornered by guardians and had to jump down one of the waterfalls. The path to the decks had been blocked, so they had run towards the stables only to find them empty. Until then, Zelda had thought the citizens living in Castle Town had pillaged the stables to flee as fast as possible, it never occurred to her the animals could have disappeared for other reason.

“What did you see?” she insisted.

“Shadows,” Link replied and picked up his shield.

Watching him walk towards the gate, Zelda felt weak on the knees. She had been present that day and had seen nothing that indicated such a thing. She needed details, she wanted to understand why he thought someone had taken the horses away from them in the critical moment, it was essential to know if he was right or not. Hylian supporters of Ganon would not come as a surprise, after all, the Yiga Clan had been up for no good way before the Calamity, but the deed seemed too calculated, too planned to come from such a disorganized, hot-headed organization. Thinking about the cruel, mischievous smile of the person opening the stables’ doors took all the previous motivation out of her.

“Link.”

He turned around. Zelda wanted to demand a million things from him, at the same time, she knew it was just cruel to put that much pressure on his shoulders.

“Did you hear me or the memory ended just in time?”

“I heard you,” he answered and put on a small, soothing smile.

Shyly, Zelda smiled back. A little more collected, they walked along the main courtyard, the bridges and the inner walls without finding a trace of the lynel or any monster, for that matter. Their clothes were soaking wet and it was getting late, so they agreed on going back to the Guard’s Chamber after checking the library lawn.

The grass was grey and dry, but alive. From the lawn, a hole in the library roof was clearly visible, bigger than she remembered. Zelda’s heart ached for her books. Some of that knowledge could have been preserved from the elements if only the bandits had been interested in books instead of weaponry, but, of course, that was too much to ask to simple thieves. 

“The lynel is not here,” she observed, “I think it is not in the castle anymore.”

Link gestured her to stay quiet and stealthily reached to the library door, which was closed and had some debris blocking it. Zelda supposed he was going to open it by force, but instead, he spied inside through a little hole in the wood. After some seconds, he took out Revali’s bow and pointed inside with a movement of the head. Fearing the worst, Zelda looked back at the hole in the roof, this time noticing the scratches of heavy hoofs and the traces of a struggle. The godforsaken monster, a fire-breathing one nonetheless, was waiting for them in the middle of her wet, mistreated, beloved old books.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why won’t you listen to me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of things have happened since I updated this fic for the last time. I will spare you the details, but basically I had to fight against bureaucracy for months to be able to study my masters in England and now I am living in Manchester, trying to figure out the winter. Sorry for the absence.

Well, a golden coat was something new for a lynel. The creature seemed to be old, with a broken horn and the scar of a nasty bite in the neck, but Link knew they were in serious trouble, after all, nature was clear with its signs: the rarer the colors, the more dangerous the monster.

It was a miracle that the beast hadn’t noticed them yet. It was busy making room for itself in the library, piling the tables and books in a corner. Sadly, that didn’t prevent it to carry its weapons, including one of the infamous crushers the lynels used to wield. Link glanced at Zelda, who stared at the hole in the library roof with concern. He knew she wanted to help, but the only reasonable thing to do was to ask her to stay at a safe distance and jump into the library to kill the lynel as fast as possible. 

_Link._

His heart skipped a beat, then he realized Zelda was speaking directly to his mind. Oh, the Goddess knew that was a handy ability; but it was very unsettling at the same time.

_Do you think we can make it come here? I don’t want the library to suffer more damage._

Link shook his head. The creature had fallen to the first floor and could not climb back easily; if he tried to lure it out, a rain of arrows would promptly fall over their heads and Link knew very well how good lynels were at shooting blindly. Zelda frowned. Link pointed at her, then at the turret behind them and then hid his face with his hands.

_Hide? Why?_

Link held back a sigh. It was his fault for letting her come, for assuming the signs were false and there was no lynel in the place.

_We’ve got this, trust me._

Link shook his head more vehemently and repeated his gestures. She clenched her fists.

_We defeated Ganon, come on._

He looked at the bow of Revali, still in his hand. Even if Zelda had proved him how powerful she was, she had also said, during the battle with Ganon, that her light was exhausted. It could simply fail and result in her putting herself at risk and getting smacked by the lynel’s savage crusher, a thought just too horrible to bear. His heart ached, remembering the terror of what he had seen back at the second gateway, the utter despair that had wrapped him one century ago when he understood only luck could save Zelda’s life.

_I won’t put myself on danger, I promise._

She must have seen some of the struggle in his face. At loss of signs to convey all the message he needed to send her, Link gestured to Zelda, indicating her to quietly come closer. When she was within reach, he pulled her to whisper in her ear.

“Keep the slate,” he said, “use stasis if you can.”

He looked at her in the eye to make clear he was not joking. Zelda nodded and her serious face lifted some of the weight from Link’s shoulders.

“Don’t let it see you,” he warned, just in case, and started to climb the wall.

He needed five jumps to reach the hole in the roof. Without a second to waste, he readied three arrows and threw himself into the library, willing to fire midair.

The first shot missed and clacked against a stone column, the second got stuck in the lynel’s mane and the third one hit it right under the eye, making it roar in pain and raise on its back hooves. Link managed to get three more arrows and aimed to the chest, nailing all the shots this time.

The beast, struggling to stay on its horse legs, balanced itself with the arms. Link landed with a roll and ran towards the monster, changing the bow for the Master Sword in the way. The lynel shook and took its crusher to attack, but Link managed to slide to its side and climb to its back. 

The first time, he had made that trick out of need. He was alone against two lynels on the Oseira Plains and things were going downhill. To avoid being stumped, he instinctively mounted one of the monsters when it charged against him, prompting the beast to buck and spin like an untamed horse. The decision, reckless and stupid beyond words, had saved his life: the other lynel had tried to stab Link and had hurt its partner on the process, which, added to the damage Link himself had done, killed the beast at last and gave him some room to finish the other. He had ended badly injured, but the tactic remained, after all, lynels were naturally hunched and that made them unable to reach their back with their hands.

The golden coat proved to be ridiculously sturdy. No matter how hard Link stabbed, the Master Sword barely pierced the skin of the monster. After just some seconds, a violent shake made him lose his grip and Link found himself in the floor with the maze hoovering over his head. Link rolled to the side just in time to avoid a hit that cracked the floor, then got ahold of a pot nearby and threw it to the monster’s face. Its confusion gave him just enough time to ready the bow again and then shoot to its head, but the beast had learned and managed to put its arm on the way. Link prepared three more arrows and crouched, the lynel was filling its lungs with air.

Just before it could spit a column of fire, a metallic bookcase came flying and hit the beast in the forehead. Alarmed by the fact Zelda had decided to use magnesis instead of stasis, which would promptly reveal her location, Link aimed to the eyes. The arrows reached the lynel’s face and stunned it, but it seemed even the eyelids were made of a material as resistant as metal. Because the bookcase was still hammering the head and back of the lynel, making too risky to try a closer attack, Link decided to climb the closest column to have a better position to fire.

There was a lizal tri-boomerang abandoned in the second floor. How lucky. The lynel managed to hit the bookcase with its bare hand hard enough to send it flying towards the stairs and break their connection with the magnesis rune. Immediately, Link threw the boomerang with all his might, in a precise shot that made a superficial cut on the lynel’s forehead before the weapon returned to his hands. The beast roared and bucked, Link threw the boomerang again but with a straight motion, one that didn’t intend to make the weapon come back.

The lynel made an hasty jump and the boomerang stabbed it under the armpit. Link growled in frustration and prepared the bow again, but then he caught a glimpse of Zelda, who had perched on the hole in the roof and was looking at the lynel with a hand on the sheikah slate. He wanted to scream at her and tell her she had to hide better, but that would only make the beast notice her faster.

Mere arrows were not going to keep the lynel distracted. Link shoot the ones he already had on the bow just because they were there, then took out the Master Sword, ran from a start and jumped from the second floor to stab the monster in the head.

Zelda froze the beast with stasis when Link was still mid-air, preventing it to defend itself. Perfect, if he was fast enough, he could use the cut made by the boomerang to stab deeper and kill the enemy before the rune effect wore off. He swung the blade with all his strength … and the golden coat of the lynel, hard as the shell of a guardian, made the Master Sword just slide across the surface without making any major damage. Thrown out of balance, Link tried to recover too fast and, as result, he landed in an awkward position for his right leg. The knee let out a sinister crack and sent a shock of pain all the way to his hip, one strong enough to make him fall to the floor, rolling until he hit a column.

“Link!”

He shook his head and looked forward. Instead of the library and the golden lynel, he saw Castle Town, on fire but still standing, full of guardians.

Horrified, he tried to scream, to alert Zelda he was caught in a memory, but he couldn’t. What had triggered the memory? The pain in the leg? It was not the first time he felt pain, it didn’t make sense. He tried to shake it off, but it continued, showing that Zelda, dressed in white and already covered in mud, had gone to his aid and had helped him stand up.

“Don’t risk it anymore!” she had said, holding his arm tightly, “you can’t time it right every time!”

_Come back!_

In the memory, the unmistakable sound of a guardian loading a shot came from the right. Back then, Zelda had pulled him towards the fountain, trying to dissuade him from parrying the laser beams with the shield.

_Stasis is over, Link!_

He parried to the right, breaking the memory in the process. The movement was poorly timed, but strong enough to avoid the maze of the lynel. The library was back, the pain in the leg was back, and the maze hit a column, almost breaking it in two. Another lucky shot and he was starting to despair. That memory, the one in the second gateway. The fortuitous boomerang; why was everything a matter of luck?

He had to focus, and nothing made him focus better than close combat. While smacking the lynel again and again with the Master Sword, trying to open a deep cut to introduce the blade and stab, he could feel Zelda trying to tell him something. Maybe she wanted to ask if it was safe to stasis the monster again, maybe she wanted to know if he was alright, or suggest a new strategy. Either way, his gut told him not to listen, not to open his mind until the job was done and, surprisingly, he was able to block her.

Maybe it was because the lynel was so tough, maybe it was because he was panicking. In a sense, Link felt as if he was trying to demolish a brick wall with a wooden spoon. The Master Sword was running out of power and the knee was still hurting. To think he had feared there would be no challenges for him after Ganon was gone. How naïve. How eternally frustrating. He was tired of being adrift, unsure of everything, always caught by surprise and forced to improvise. The lynel swung the maze from the left, Link jumped backwards to avoid a hit and found a perfect opening. He leaped on the opportunity and slashed mercilessly, putting all his desperation into it until, with a final blow, a big vein opened, and a spurt of steam-hot blood blinded him for a moment.

At the beginning, the light of the guardians hurt his eyes and made him a easy prey for them. Zelda’s light had blinded him too, just for a moment out there in the Hyrule fields. That was his life, a blind race towards a destiny he didn’t understand. Link lifted his shield to protect himself while he cleaned his face, dirty with blood and a tear of rage, but the familiar sound of the stasis activation prompted him to low his guard and look for something in his belt.

“Why won’t you listen to me?” yelled Zelda, but Link didn’t want to answer. He took and elixir out of his belt, sheathed the Master Sword, which was as good as an actual wooden spun after spending all its magic, and chugged the whole bottle without breathing. “Link!”

He threw the bottle at the lynel’s chest and grabbed the tri-boomerang, still stuck in the monster’s side, just in time. The stasis wore off and the beast fell to its knees, Link took the boomerang out and jumped to its back, roaring when he noticed the effects of the mighty elixir already making his attacks stronger. The lynel managed to recover its balance and started to buck, but it was useless because the adrenaline rush had taken Link’s pain away and he could hold onto the beast’s hair to kick and cut and dig into that golden coat to find muscles and tissues to break apart. 

The lynel started to run towards the furthest column with the intention to hit it with the back and smash him. Its trot was clumsy and its breathing had become a loud snore, though, so Link trusted that it didn’t have enough forces left for the task. Then, the boomerang broke in his hands.

There went his luck out of the window. Link couldn’t count the times the same had happened to him before. Weaponless and enraged, he stepped on the cuts he had made, but the lynel just ran faster. He could jump and get ahold of Revali’s bow to finish the job, but the mere thought of the arrows getting stuck on the coat without doing any considerable damage was too infuriating. Instead, he took the first arrow he found in his quiver, a shock one, and stabbed the lynel with it, by hand, through the deepest cut he had managed so far.

What an appropriate time to learn that the exposed insides of a lynel didn’t display the same natural resistance to elemental arrows that the outer part of their bodies did. The beast thrashed and fell on its side, letting loose of its maze and roaring in horrible pain. Link rolled to the side, got on his feet at full speed and ran towards the maze, letting his shield behind.

As soon as he took it, a blow of fire caught him by surprise. The thing couldn’t just die, could it? Zelda shouted something, Link couldn’t tell if for real or just in his head. The flames scorched his clothes and leather armor, heating up his chainmail to an unbearable level, but it was going to take more to stop him, with so much wrath running along the elixir through his veins. With a scream, Link swung the maze above his head and landed a fatal blow on the beast’s head, crushing its skull once and for all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think you are selfish,” he said with a soft voice, “I remember so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I solemnly promise I will not say "I will post the next chapter at the end of this week" ever again. The most realist approximation is a monthly update. I am sorry I cannot manage a faster schedule, my master degree is taking most of my time.
> 
> Also, FYI: while this fic takes into account some bits of the game DLC, I don't plan on incorporating the whole thing, motorcycle and all, into the story.

“Link, stop!” cried Zelda. “Please, Link, you are burning up!”

He didn’t seem to hear her, he was too busy crushing the hell out of the lynel’s corpse with a maze so big it didn’t seem possible a regular Hylian could use it. Link was no regular Hylian, of course, but he wasn’t immune to fire either.

“Link, it’s dead already!”

The stairs were broken and the sheikah slate had nothing to offer. Frustrated, Zelda took mental note of getting a paraglider for herself and then entrusted her safety to muscle memory, jumping to a nearby bookcase and then the second floor. She lost balance in the last moment and fell into her knees, stood up immediately and ran towards the column closer to Link’s position, hoping to be able to climb it down like she would do in the old days.

_Link, can you hear me?_

The beast’s corpse burst. This time, instead of a smoke cloud of malice, the body let go an acrid steam that smelled of iron and bile. Link reacted and stepped backwards. His clothes were still burning; aware of it at last, he started to pat himself to put the flames out.

“Roll, roll!” Zelda screamed, getting ahold of the column to start her descend, “it’s faster if you roll!”

He didn’t pay any attention. Zelda fought her urge to throw herself from the second floor and focused on find a way down. In the meantime, Link got too worked out and decided to undress, throwing away the bow and arrows first.

“You are out of your mind,” she complained when she landed and then grabbed the tunic to help him pull it out.

The chainmail under it was burning hot. She bit her lip and kept on pulling, they managed to take it off after a couple of seconds. Zelda threw the clothes to the side, Link roared in pain and took his hands to his back to scratch the burns.

“Stop!” she cried, “stop!”

Zelda took him by the wrists. He struggled, shaking her violently, almost bucking like the lynel had done during the fight. She persevered, trying to keep some distance to prevent a direct kick or a headbutt.

“Look at me!” 

They managed to kick the lynel remains, making the sickening smell become stronger. It was acid, disgusting, but she had known worse. Link growled and tried to tackle her, Zelda planted her feet on the ground and pushed with all her might, managing to embrace him and stick his hands together behind his back.

“Breathe.” 

Link shivered and stopped struggling. Zelda hold him tight, feeling him grinding his teeth and trembling against her body, noticing the worrying heat coming out of his wounds. The effect was finally wearing off.

“It is ok, just breathe.”

He obeyed. His breathing stuttered.

“Mighty elixirs are to be taken before the battle as a strategic measure, not in the middle or as a last resort.”

“Let me go,” he answered in a reedy tone.

Zelda could perceive the bubbling irritation in his chest. The elixir was not to blame for all that rage fit; for Link’s skin was not the only thing burning. All of that was her fault, but she knew he didn’t want and would not accept an apology, at least not in that very moment. 

“Keep breathing,” she commanded and let go of his wrists. He didn’t move, she stepped back and pulled from her bodice to let the fairy come out. “Do your thing.”

The tiny creature flew around Link and its dust healed most of his burns. The way he followed its path with a scowl, as if he were a cat unsure of how to feel about an intriguing bug, made Zelda doubt he was completely back to his senses. When it was gone, he kept staring at the hole in the ceiling it had used to leave. Zelda, in the meantime, stared at her hands. They were red and sensitive, but had no blisters.

“Go to the guard’s chambers and get some rest,” she ordered without looking at him, “you will depart to Kakariko the day after tomorrow, so don’t worry about packing.”

Link was panting. Out of the corner of her eye, Zelda could see his clenched fists.

“If you’d rather tell me something first, you’ve got my attention,” she offered.

He seemed to relax a bit. Zelda inhaled and dared to look at him, at the scars, old and new. He was covered in them, but the fatal blow that guardian had shot a century ago had left the strongest mark, a wide stroke on the left side of his belly. What had happened to that machine? Had she destroyed it already?

“Why did you put yourself in danger?” he asked.

“I didn’t.”

Link let out a heavy sigh and turned to the lynel remains to pick what he found useful.

“You think I am helpless,” she said. Link glanced at her, “don’t you?”

He gave it some thought and then shook his head. It was her turn to clench the fists.

“Then what do you think of me?” she insisted, “you said you remembered me, but you act like you don’t.”

He stood silent.

“Come on, be sincere and tell me.”

“I think you are selfish,” he said with a soft voice, “I remember so.”

Brilliant. Fantastic. Marvelous. Link took the last piece of lynel hoof and stood up to face her. She immediately turned around, saw a bench nearby and went to sit down, noticing that he followed. Good thing her hair was so long, he would not be able to notice her struggles to hold back tears.

“I told you to go to the chambers,” she muttered after a while, when it was evident he would not move, “you are still burnt.”

He cleared his throat.

“I don’t need you to escort me in my own library, go away.”

“I don’t want to.”

Zelda lifted her face, feeling her cheeks burning hot. He was frowning, with a hint of disapproval in his severe gaze that she knew all too well.

“What do you want to do, then?”

“Go to Lurelin, for two weeks or a moon.”

Was he joking? They had just arrived at Hyrule Castle. There was a treasure to collect and seize, people to organize, messages to send. An entire kingdom to repair and unify. How could he call her selfish when she was the one caring for someone besides herself?

“You are not the Link I know.”

“It’s not like I can help it.”

Zelda opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t come around to say anything. Her eyes itched. The old Link would have never said such a thing. The Link she remembered was a dutiful, proud knight who always put the interests of the kingdom before his own. He was also well-mannered and sensitive, he would die before speaking to her or to anybody in the blunt way he sported so carelessly now.

“You are taking it wrong.”

Zelda gave in to the tears. She was under too much pressure, she could not be bothered to decipher whatever message his nonsense was trying to convey. 

“Zelda, please.”

“Go to the chambers already,” she ordered and bent to hide her face.

She could feel it when he stood up and when, instead of leaving, he kneeled in front of her.

“I dream of you going to Lurelin with me, but because I know you would never, I am staying instead.”

Zelda raised her head just enough to stare at him in disbelief. The old Link would have averted his gaze, but this stranger held it instead. The old Link would make that blank stare of his, this man she didn’t know had eyes full of emotion, of shame and anger and worry and compassion. 

“You know what?” she said, “I will give you a chance and assume the mighty elixir is messing with your head.”

He snorted. Despite herself, Zelda chuckled. Now that they were so close, she could see the longing, the exhaustion, the uncertainty and confusion painted all over his face. His wish to get lost for a while was nothing but reasonable, but she could not grant it. Not while the kingdom’s destiny kept hanging by a thread. Could he perceive the fear, the frustration, the impotence she felt? 

“I would like to ask you many questions,” she said after a sigh, “but I don’t want the answers.”

“You are answering them in my place, then.”

“In my defense, you got me used to do it.”

Link downed his gaze. A breeze came from the hole in the roof and made Zelda shiver, reminding her of the rain she had endured and the soaking wet clothes she still had on. Before she could insist on going back to the chambers, though, Link’s eyes met hers again.

“Nothing around you is like it used to be, including me,” he declared, sending a shudder down her spine that had nothing to do with the weather, “ask me your questions now, and let me answer now.”

Slowly, Zelda stretched her arms pass Link’s head, as if she was going to embrace him. He stood still, scowling a bit. She took him from the back of his head and then tickled his nape. He jolted immediately, noticed the smug face in her, tried to resist, but ended muting his giggling in despair.

“There you go, complete different man, anchored in the present with no ties to the past that I remember,” she said, bitter, holding his head firmly to force him looking her in the eyes, “hadn’t we agreed on the fact that you are now ambidextrous?” 

He seemed to be about to say something, but he closed his mouth tightly instead. 

“Will you admit that you think I can’t look after myself and that I am of no use in battle?”

“That is unfair.”

“We will face similar situations from now on, so you’d better be sincere.”

“You need a blanket; your hands are too cold.”

That was true. She was freezing and the stench of the lynel remains was making her sick.

“This is what we are going to do,” she said, “we are going to the chambers to report the lynel is dead, then keep on with the plan I outlined in Kakariko. When you arrive with the second party and people is organized, then we are going to have a real talk, in which you won’t be high in mighty elixir and will have a shirt on. Understood?”

Zelda let go of Link’s head and stood up. He rushed to stand up too.

“Can I ask just one question?”

She looked at him and found him… blushing. Even if slightly. 

“Yes?”

“How did you know I am ticklish back there?”

It was her turn to blush. The conversation had already escalated too much and too quickly for her nerves. Under other circumstances, probably the fact that the tickling hadn’t triggered any memory would have been disappointing, but in that moment, Zelda took it for a favor of the Goddess.

“Uh, Mipha told me once,” she lied.

To her horror, he seemed hurt.

“I see.”

Without looking at her, Link went to retrieve his quiver and Revali’s bow, which still lied, a little smoldered, in a corner. Zelda battled the urge to cover her mouth. She was a huge idiot. Link had just lost the Champion’s abilities, he had broken a guardian into tiny pieces because he had lost them. He was grieving, how was he supposed to take the fact that something linked to Mipha could not trigger a memory?

“You are right, I am selfish,” she said, looking down.

She could perceive Link approaching, then stopping around two steps away of her. It was getting late for real now. What a long day.

“Let’s go back,” he said with a soft voice.

She had still so much to say, but it was not worth it. Zelda sighed. She was just on edge, missing Impa with all her heart. She could use some advice and a friendly hand, warm food, some rest. She took the lead and headed towards the door to the lower part of the castle. He immediately followed, she stopped in taking the stairs.

“Be careful with how you use the lynel parts you collected,” she warned without looking at him, “I don’t want to see you using such a strong elixir, ever again.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Link, do you remember how you died?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I strove to get this chapter done before term started and here you have it! Only 15 days after the last update (what a ride).
> 
> I want to take the chance to thank all the beautiful people of the _Zelink Family_ and the _Sanctum of Hyrule v3_ Discord servers for their help and encouragement in the writing of this fic. Also, of course, I thank you all for your kudos and comments, I read and appreciate every single one of them  <3

Zelda’s idea, when she gave him an additional day before departing to Kakariko, was to let him rest, but Link spent it running around. He cooked, he cleaned, he checked all the rooms to be sure they were free of monsters. He also took all the treasure he knew about to the doors of the first gateway. He let it just close enough for the volunteers to pick it up and take it to Zelda with a smile, just far enough so he didn’t see her. When it was time for him to leave and she didn’t come to say goodbye, he didn’t know what to do.

He could not afford another incident with her. He was overwhelmingly ashamed after the battle with the lynel and he didn’t know why. He had tried to apologize during the dinner, but neither the thing to apologize for nor the words to do it had come into his mind. She had clearly stated that she felt patronized, he was just failing to understand how he was patronizing her. Zelda’s intervention with the sheikah slate had been brilliant, it was just that, if the lynel had noticed her, she wouldn’t have had any bow, sword or shield to defend herself. It was too risky of a situation and he wanted to make sure she was safe. It was his duty to keep her safe, wasn’t it? If so, where was the line? What was he supposed to do?

He decided to leave without looking for her.

Malon was ecstatic to go back in the open fields. She galloped to her heart’s content, so fast that they arrived at Wetland Stable in a bit less than three hours. Link didn’t stop for long, just enough to grab a snack and confirm the rumors about the victory over Ganon.

“I still can’t believe she is the same princess of old!” said a mature hunter, the voice full of hope.

“I do, she seems to be just like her father,” replied a young man who was part of the stable personnel, “she has been on for a week and there you see her, taking decisions and making arrangements while expecting all of us to shut up and obey.”

“Oh, please, reveal more of that intimate knowledge you have about the king who died eighty years before you were born,” asked the stable owner, making everybody but Link laugh out loud.

“My grandmother told me everything about Rhoam, she worked at the court,” insisted the young man, “he was a jerk.” 

“Princess Zelda is not,” said Link, keeping a blank face while his guts got heavy with annoyance, “she hasn’t sent messengers because she can’t.”

“Sure, because her little house comes first,” said the young man, rolling his eyes, “such turn of events definitely motivates me to go and throw myself in her arms, so she can exploit me like her father did with my grandma.”

“You are a spoiled idiot,” declared the hunter and stood up, “I am going to the castle to help and thank her for getting rid of the Calamity, who’s with me?”

“Yeah, y’all go and let her become the monster she wants to be,” said the young man and went back to his game of cards, “good luck.”

Link found himself unable to argue with that man. He knew there were a lot like him, that Zelda’s dream to rebuild Hyrule would take years. Link adjusted the belts holding the Master Sword’s sheath, splashed his face with water, almost slapping himself, and went back to the road.

Once the stable was out of sight, he tried to remember more about King Rhoam, not the spirit in the Great Plateau, but the living monarch before the Calamity. With the help of the slate (that he missed dearly, now that he had given it back to Zelda), Link had recovered a couple of memories where Rhoam was very strict, even a bit stubborn. He probably was afraid, and his fear made him lose sight of the circumstances. Link could not blame him, the weight of fighting the looming Calamity was a lot to bear. Even so, he could not shake the feeling Rhoam was… yes, a bit of a jerk.

Maybe it was the way he talked about his people. ‘Do you know how the gossip mongers refer to you?’ the king had said to Zelda, ‘they are out there at this moment whispering amongst themselves… that you are the heir of a throne of nothing, of nothing but failure.’ The mistrust in the king’s voice, the disdain in his expression. As if he thought of every citizen as nothing but a ‘gossip monger’ and of Zelda as a nuisance. 

Link squeezed Malon’s reins. Nothing else came to his mind. He had been captain of the royal guard, it was obvious he had shared enough time with King Rhoam to know him at a somewhat close level, but everything was gone. He felt a little guilty, after all, the ghost of the monarch had been friendly, even funny. Maybe he was so just because he needed Link to help Zelda? He had spoken about her with a loving voice, but one-hundred years ago, he had treated her harshly. Probably he was bad at expressing himself in life, and had come in terms with it during his time as a spirit. 

The ruins of Goponga Village’s first houses appeared on the side of the road. Link made Malon stop. Not long ago, he had scouted that ominous place to the very last corner with the hope of triggering a memory, after he was told by the Zora that he had been stationed in the garrison nearby for some time. Nothing, nothing ever came unless it was directly related to Zelda somehow.

He had not told her that because he needed to understand it, to come in terms with it first. It was infuriating. Besides the pictures Zelda had left on the sheikah slate, from which he had unveiled about seven or eight, all the other memories he had recovered had something to do with her: a piece of cloth of the same navy blue as her royal garments, a piece of furniture she had used during a diplomatic visit, an encounter he had had under her orders. A giant ancient core dropping from a guardian, the smell of old books, the happiness of a dog when given a treat. Fruitcakes. Hot-footed frogs. Silent Princesses. The sunrays slipping through the forest’s leaves.

If Link knew his parents were called Iji and Lasia, it was because the Zora had told him. He had got their features described, their mannerisms and everything they remembered carefully explained, to no avail. He had researched through the land, but all the memories he found urged him to storm the castle and bring Zelda back. It was always about her. It felt like a trick of the Goddess to keep him on track, focused on his mission, like a hunting hound. Now that she was free, and the mission accomplished, the fact that images of his family and friends still refused to come back seemed unfair. Hadn’t he earned it? Why did he keep remembering things about Zelda instead? 

Grumbling to himself, he resumed his travel and decided to cross the Sahasra Slope instead of going all the way to the Dueling Peaks. The first party had chosen not to use it because it was too steep for carriages and too deteriorated from having been filled with bokoblins. There were no monsters now, just horses running around in the distance. The wind carried the giggling of koroks, too. They seemed more numerous and active, but Link couldn’t be bothered to find their little puzzles. Hestu had already enough seeds for his maracas.

He arrived to Kakariko a bit after sunset.

“Master Link!” Paya came trotting from Impa’s house, “are you alright? You were supposed to arrive yesterday, we were worried!”

Link stopped Malon and nodded. Paya stopped too and tried to get a better view of his face.

“Eh, excuse me, Master Link, I don’t want to be rude, but… are you sure you are ok?”

He nodded again and dismounted.

“Do you want to eat?” Paya took the reins of Malon from his hands, “grandma is waiting for you, we… have some bad news; nothing too bad! But you better head there.”

“I will cook later, thanks.”

As most villagers in Kakariko, Paya was a vegetarian, and Link had a painful craving of meat that he planned to solve with a couple of wood pigeons he had seized along the way. He didn’t want to upset her.

Impa had dozed off. Undisturbed, Link sat on the floor in front of her, with the legs crossed. After a little while, she opened her eyes just a bit.

“Glad to see you are safe, Link,” she whispered, “what took you so long?”

“Zelda’s orders.”

Impa blinked slowly. Link swallowed. She was holding him accountable, as usual.

“We fought a lynel in the library of the castle,” he explained, “after defeating it, she ordered me to rest for a day.”

“And did you?”

“I didn’t fight anything that day.”

Impa chuckled. Link took a deep breath. As far as he knew, they had not been exactly friends before the Calamity. He could understand why.

“The second party will be of nine people only, the others had to drop off for personal reasons,” Impa said, “I hope you recruited travelers along the way.”

Link nodded. The words of the young man at the stable irked in the back of his mind, but there was no point in mentioning him. There was something more important he wanted to talk about.

“We have scouted the lands all the way to Rutala in the north and Squabble in the south,” Impa continued, “there are monsters still roaming, but most of their camps are empty. Also, I received word from Symin that people in Hateno noticed the changes and are exploring by themselves.”

Link assumed Purah, still reduced to the state of a child, was unable to go and tell them what had happened. She would not trust Symin with such a task, either.

“What about the other races?” he asked.

“Our explorer told the news to a Zora stationed in Kincean Island, King Dorephan must be aware by now. As for the others, I know Purah contacted Robbie, his son Granté will probably spread the news in Tarrey Town and it will fly across the land in the wings of the Rito.”

Link cocked his head to the side. Tarrey Town.

“What is in your mind?”

“There is a man I must see in Tarrey Town, he goes by Hagie.”

Impa arched her brows so high they got lost in the shadow of her hat.

“Is that so?”

“I remembered something.”

Impa let loose a laugh. Link pursed his lips.

“It amuses me greatly that you still hope I won’t dig deeper,” she admitted.

“First,” he replied and leaned back on his arms, “the lynel had golden fur.”

“That is unheard of!” Impa exclaimed, and she had to hold her hat, “is there any information about it in the Hyrule Compendium?”

“I gave the slate back to Zelda.”

Impa stared at him, not amused. Link averted his gaze and bit the inside of his mouth. He didn’t know if Zelda had taken a picture of it. He doubted it, the fight had been fast. Besides, she probably wasn’t even aware lynels weren’t supposed to have golden fur, they hadn’t commented anything about it.

“Link, do you remember how you died?”

The question took him by surprise. He glanced at Impa, trying to read her intentions, but she looked like a statue.

“A guardian shot me here,” he said and touched the lower part of his belly with one of his hands, “then I got clawed and thrown to the swamp in front of Fort Hateno. When I was about to get shot in the head, Zelda saved me, but I collapsed.”

“That’s what Robbie told you.”

Link frowned and averted his gaze again.

“The day the Calamity raised, and we went to stop it at Hyrule Castle, a man saw Zelda and I struggling in the upper part,” he narrated, “he was tall, with dark skin and blonde hair, he was dressed fancy, with a long tunic and a lilac muffin hat.” 

“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Impa said after Link let a long silence pass.

“We realized our plan had failed and that we had to flee. On our way to the docks, I saw this man running towards the stables. Because our path was blocked, I decided to follow his lead and, when we arrived, all the horses were gone, all the saddles and reins in their place but the ones that belonged to the king and to Zelda’s horses.” Link looked at Impa, “Zelda didn’t see him, and I didn’t tell her about him.”

“And?” she asked, rather unimpressed.

“I am sure he set the horses free to slow us down and he stole the royal saddles to later sell them with who knows what else he took from the castle. I am almost sure Hagie’s fortune comes from there.”

“They can’t be the same man.”

“They are almost identical. The thief was probably his father.”

“And if you are right, what do you plan to do? To hold him accountable?” Impa dismissed him with a gesture of the hand, “you have most important matters to think about, Link.”

“People like him will get in Zelda’s way,” he replied, cursing at himself because his cheeks and ears were turning red, “they are dangerous.”

“There is too much resentment on this land for you to bring more by picking fights with the offspring of the crown’s opposing parties,” Impa said, “Princess Zelda is well aware of the fact not everybody will welcome her, she knows the wounds of the Calamity are too deep and, further on, that her father was not the most popular monarch.”

“Does she?” Link started feeling too hungry and tired for that conversation, “she seems convinced the kingdom was nothing but glory a century ago.”

“We are in shambles compared to what we were a century ago,” replied Impa and moved to stand up, slowly. Link rushed to her aid, but she slapped his hand, “we are but a shadow of the kingdom of Hyrule, a pitiful remnant, a disgraceful leftover. Of course she longs for the glory of the past, even if it includes angry courtesans and cowards lining with Ganon for their own puny interests. Come here, you need to be put in your place.”

Baffled and swallowing a lump of emotions with all his might, Link followed the tiny old woman to one of the corner of the room.

“Before leaving to face Ganon, Zelda asked me to show you this only when you cleared all the memories in the slate,” Impa explained, climbing the drawer to get within the reach of a frame hidden by a cloth, “I was patient, I expected you to go back to the recollection of those after every quest. I should have known better. You told me that you would work on the memories after visiting Rito Village, then, that you had to go to Zora’s Domain and free their divine beast first, and so on,” she made a pause to breathe, “you forsake this quest I gave you in Zelda’s name, on purpose,” she declared and pulled the cloth.

It was a big picture of a swamp full of guardians. The Ash Swamp. Fort Hateno. Link’s body tensed by itself, but the memory didn’t come to his mind.

“You have a wild spirit, Hero, but don’t pretend that that will make me sympathize with your childish unwillingness,” Impa said, “navigating the holes of your memory, you have come to the wrong conclusions. I hope this last image will help you reconsider.”

‘Childish unwillingness.’ ‘Wrong conclusions.’ ‘Reconsider.’ Where did all that come from? Slowly, Link raised his gaze towards the ceiling. He could imagine the precipitous mountains that surrounded Kakariko and the sky full of stars that lied beyond. Somewhere there, hovering over the world, lived a Goddess that though of him as a damn pig.

 _Please, just tell me_ , he asked silently, _why do you mistrust me this much?_


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the fact the castle was the sturdiest structure among the ruins, she would have moved way past the moat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I thank the people at the _Zelink Family_ and _Sanctum of Hyrule v.3_ Discord servers for their help in the development of this fic. I am a bit wary of the change of pace, but I think it is for the best. Tell me what you think!

Zelda was right: the girl who had mentioned the lizalfos of the guard chamber had, indeed, pillaged the castle before it became too dangerous. Her name was Parcy and she was a brilliant scavenger. Where the sheikah only saw debris, she found rupees, cutlery, old tapestries and clothes that had been stored carefully enough to survive a century. She also brought Zelda all kinds of ancient materials, and even some mushrooms and herbs that had grown in the cracks of the walls. Under her tutoring, the search for treasure became so effective that Zelda had to delegate the keeping of the inventory to be able to leave the first gateway during the day.

Enthusiasm grew hand in hand with the collection of objects and the ruins of the castle were as lively as the central market during the old times. People and things were starting to get cramped and the arrival of the second party was fundamental for the next necessary step: the distribution of plots. Zelda was tense. Newcomers appeared almost every hour, attracted by the rumors that spread among the stables and small settlements across central Hyrule, and they were much more than she anticipated. Even with the Sheikah’s support, keeping her authority as a princess in front of all those people, who had lived for decades without a royal figure, seemed to be a hopeless task. 

Link had better arrive soon. Zelda wasn’t really upset by his stealthy departure, rather, she was afraid. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t see him in the distance or speak to his mind. It was extremely lonely. In his absence, the towers of the castle grew threatening, the sinister gaze of the malice seemed to linger again, lurking from the shadows and sending goosebumps down her spine. He had been the one that guided her back inside the castle, and without his help, she was not able to step into her father’s study and bedroom, or even into her own quarters. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the fact the castle was the sturdiest structure among the ruins, she would have moved way past the moat.

Oh, the changes she would make. What involved the people would be discussed with them, but some things were already fixed on Zelda’s map: the place where the cathedral used to be would host the royal house, that she imagined as a modest manor. The temple would be erected where the castle’s sanctum used to be; the library would be complimented to become a public place of teaching and development. The second gateway would become the meeting chamber of a new house of government with representatives of the different provinces and ambassadors of the other races. The guardian pillars would be completely dismantled, no matter the cost.

“Princess!” Parcy called, “the second party is here!”

Zelda let her notebook aside and ran with her to the turret close to the main door. Six carriages with provisions, three riders and four horses without master were crossing the first wall gates. In the front, Link hid his face under a hood. Before Zelda could say anything, Parcy leaned on the parapet and squinted at the group.

“Seems they had a bad encounter, huh?” 

“What do you mean?”

“The broken rod and the stain of monster blood in the carriage to the left,” she indicated, pointing, “not to mention the free horses.”

“Don’t tell me that…” Zelda started, but then she decided to run.

She went down the ladder and managed to meet the party at the main gate, in such a rush that, when she arrived, she had to stop and gasp for breath. She noticed Link’s mare stopping in front of her and how he dismounted.

“Link, you… I am… uff,” she said, winded up, surprised of herself, “are you alright?”

Link gave her a confused look. The tunic he was wearing had to be new, since the last one had burned, but it looked so worn and dirty it could come directly from the mouldiest chest in the inventory. He was also pale and had dark circles under his eyes. 

“Are you alright?” she insisted.

He nodded dimly. The sheikah came from the carriages too see what was going on. They all looked worn out. Rola, the owner of the archery shop, had a bandage in her leg.

“What happened?” Zelda asked.

“Your Majesty,” Rola answered, supporting herself in another woman, “we were attacked by a group of monsters close to the ruins of Mabe.”

“They were waiting for us between the crag and the grove,” added the other woman, “we didn’t see them until it was too late.”

Link fixed his eyes on the floor.

“What about those horses?” Zelda asked.

“Oh, Master Link took them from the beasts!” said Rola, cracking a smile, “besides a marvellous archer, he’s also a brilliant herdsman!”

Overcome by relief, Zelda put a hand to her chest and let out a deep sigh. Link glanced at Rola and then took his mare by the reins to head towards the stables. Zelda stopped him by putting a hand of his shoulder.

“Hey… thank you.”

He blinked slowly, then bowed and proceeded to the stables. Zelda felt her cheeks turn red. People, aware of the arrival of the party, started to cheer from the turrets. A conversation would have to wait.

With the new additions, they were 83 between adults and teenagers, plus 19 kids. That was the seed of a prosperous town, if only the distribution of the plots was successful. Knowing how much was at stake made her feel all queasy inside, but she could not let it show.

“To the people who just arrived, please take your time to settle down,” she told the concurrence, putting on her best royal face, “we have organized some fronts of action, their respective leaders will approach you after the dinner to tell you about them and determine the role that better suits you and your interests.”

People nodded and smiled at her. Link, although somewhat dejected, was present, standing in the background. It was a good moment.

“Now that we are a bit more than a hundred, it is time to take a step further and outline the smallholdings for the rebuilding of castle town,” she said and took a moment to breathe, “in regards of the importance of the decisions we will take, I expect all of you to engage in the planning and discussions with the well-being of the community in mind. We will assemble the day after tomorrow for as long as necessary; please finish as much as your tasks as you can beforehand.”

“What about the people who may be on the way?” asked someone, “they deserve to have a voice in this matter, don’t they?”

“And the people from Hateno?” asked another.

“I understand and share your concern, believe me when I say that I will not leave anybody behind.” Zelda affirmed and took a step forward. “Only the proper organization of our community will allow us to grow and effectively reach every corner of Hyrule to lend a hand to all the victims of this century of scarcity. The day after tomorrow we have the chance to plant the seed of an inclusive society, one capable of safeguarding and healing. We have the chance to take the real first step towards recovery and is in taking this step that we will do the best for the interest of the kingdom and the people who live all across it.”

“Yes, well said!” Parcy yelled and produced a weave of cheering, “let’s get to work, people!”

Zelda smiled. She was still nervous, but at least the group was scattering now and, if she was going to be questioned, it would be in private. She waited for a bit to see if someone approached. The woman who had helped Rola before introduced herself soon enough.

“I am Paya’s friend,” she explained, “she asked me to tell you Lady Impa gave bad news to the Hero and that she doesn’t think he will speak about it; if you were so kind to ask him first, she said to me she would be very thankful.”

“Any idea of what it was about?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Zelda glanced at Link. He had sit in a chopped trunk, the Master Sword in front of him, lying on his shoulder as if it was going to whisper something into his ear. He also sported an impressive blank stare, even to his standards, that kept everybody at bay. 

“Thanks for telling me.”

The sun started to set. When Link noticed Zelda coming close, he stood up, keeping the Master Sword in front of him, with the sheathed point resting on the pavement.

“If you aren’t too tired, can I show you something?” she asked.

He nodded and put the Master Sword on his back. Zelda considered saying something else to try and get a word out of his mouth, but she’d better reach the library sooner than later. The people they met along the way just let them pass. Zelda imagined her tension and Link’s soldier stance were a bit intimidating. It was amusing, in a way.

“It has been challenging to find time to spare these days,” she said when they finally arrived at the building, the roof of which was already repaired, albeit with a temporal structure, “I must admit I have sacrificed more sleep hours that I would like.”

Zelda stopped next to the desk she had claimed to herself and looked at Link. He analysed the disposition of the metal bookshelves to give her a private space, the maps rolled in one corner and then, the bunch of ancient materials in the centre of the table. Then, he looked at her with a faint pinch of incredulity in his eyes. She felt like smiling. 

“That’s what I have been working on,” she explained and took the sheikah slate out, “I noticed the recent updates on the slate let a window open to access the core code. Reading it allowed me to confirm that the slate is unable to transport more than one person at a time due to the fact the system is programmed to limit the energy intensity.” Zelda reached the coding screen and showed it to Link, “here, you can see how the top energy level is fixed in seventy units. After producing a report on average energy usage for the last three moons, I estimated two persons would require at least one hundred and ten units, I also concluded the limitation was put in place simply to prevent a burn out. This,” she added and took the device she had built over the past nights, “is an adapted circuit system taken from a guardian axe, powered with this ancient core, that I intend to connect to the slate as an extension, to be sure the admission of one hundred and ten units will not overcharge the system. If I am correct, you and I will be able to fast-travel together, albeit we will probably need to avoid excessively long jumps.”

Fatigue ran away from Link’s eyes. Zelda was relieved to see his interest. She offered the extension device to him, he made a vague gesture indicating he’d rather not touch it and took the slate instead.

“With this, I estimate we will cover all the settlements and the capitals of the other races in about two weeks,” Zelda said while he browsed the code, “after that, specific meetings can be scheduled in short notice, which will definitely improve the development of the new kingdom’s relationships.”

“If that is written here…” he asked, “all the other things are, too?”

“Like what?”

“You could not open the shrine on the Ancient Columns.”

Zelda smiled faintly. That was the first thing she had checked, and her findings were bittersweet.

“The slate operates under both material and magical principles,” she explained, “you can deduct which function is ascribed to each one by looking at the code, but you cannot modify the structure too much without compromising the functionality. The fast-travel works most definitely under material principles; therefore, it does not depend on the recognition of the Chosen Hero’s soul, but the other things...”

The silence was filled by the awkward taste of the words ‘Chosen Hero’. Link frowned, looked at the code once more and then gave the slate back to Zelda. The Master Sword peeked over his shoulder; once again, she felt as if the blade was about to speak, or maybe it was already speaking, but Zelda could not listen to it anymore.

“Hey, Link,” she said, shaking those thoughts out of her mind, “I would also like to take the chance to apologize for what happened the other day, I realize now I got carried away by my eagerness to act.”

He stood silent. She put the slate and the extension device in the desk, then leaned on it and tried to remain casual, even if the tension was shaking her insides.

“I have given some thought to your situation, tried to grasp how you may feel with the memory loss problem and all… I am sorry I put yet another burden in your shoulders, I would like us to come in terms about that to make things easier.”

More silence. Zelda moved a bit to the side to make room for Link. Hesitant, he walked slowly and leaned on the desk too. Now closer, Zelda could perceive the stench of blood and dirt in his tunic. Once again, she was depriving him of a well-deserved rest and a bath. The library was becoming dark.

“Do you prefer to talk about this over some food?” she offered.

He looked upwards and let out a soft sigh. The unnervign, tingling sensation of a déjà vu made Zelda’s hair stand on end. He had done the same the first time he opened to her, after a long day of trekking through Lindor hills in the search of a shrine they never found.

“What is it that worries you?”

“I wield the soul of the Chosen Hero, right? That's why I do things I didn’t know I could do and I know stuff I learned from nobody,” he said and then looked directly into her eyes, “you carry the blood of the Goddess. Does that happen to you to?”

“What do you mean?”

“It was really you who decided to let me a picture of Fort Hateno, so I could relive my own death?”

So that was the bad news Impa had given to him. Zelda felt sick. She had taken the picture and she had indicated Impa to keep it for Link, yes. It seemed logical, a way to provide him with the best understanding of the situation. She had acted on the assumption he would be yearning to know how it had happened.

“Do you mistrust me?” he asked softly when he realized she was unable to reply.

“What? No!” Zelda replied and left the desk to face Link, “no, no, why would I?”

He began to say something, then hesitated and bit his lip.

“Look,” she said and leaned forward to take his hands, startling him a bit, “I don’t know to what strange conclusion you have arrived, what I know is that you are here, even after your mission is completed and despite me being just the… head of a kingdom that doesn’t exist, with no authority over you,” as she blurted the words, she squeezed his hands, “there would be no consequences if you left and you have had countless opportunities to do so, but you are still here and I can only be grateful, how could I mistrust you?”

“I… just can’t catch up,” he said with a thin voice, “I don’t understand what is happening, I can’t...”

“What?”

He didn’t continue.

“Is it you who mistrust me,” she said, “because of your memory.”

Ashamed, Link looked down. Zelda took a very deep breath. Her mind raced to put the best possible words together before panic reached her. Everything had a rational explanation, nobody was to blame if they wanted to find a fast, rational solution too.

“Give me a chance,” she asked, “I may not be the Goddess, I can’t magically know all the answers and give you peace, but I…”

‘I know you’ she wanted to say. ‘I understand you’. None of those were true, he was as much of a stranger to her as she was to him. ‘Count on me, I can guide you, I will protect you.’ Could she? ‘Believe me, believe in me, I won’t let you down, you are the one I won’t let down.’ Hadn’t she already?

“You are here,” he said, out of the blue.

“Yes,” she replied, feeling defeated, “I am here.”

“I’d better talk the rest after some food.”

Despite herself, Zelda smiled. Food, rest, light, a sheikah device to stop time and think. They were together in that mess and she was also unable to catch up.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “A good Goron gets a silver a day in the mines.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter made me take a lot of decisions in regards of world-building. Hope I chose wisely!
> 
> A reminder of the fact you can find this fanfic and others in my Tumblr account, plus TLOZ content and general randomness. My askbox is open to questions, comments and requests! www.yabanned.tumblr.com

“BROTHER!”

The scream clashed against Link’s entire train of thought. The whole conversation he was mentally rehearsing for when he sat down to eat with Zelda just flew away. Bayge, Heehl and Kabetta, the three Goron Blood Brothers he had met in Mount Nabooru around four moons ago, stood proud in the middle of the dining hall with a grin in their faces, utterly ignoring the crowd of Hylians at their feet, who demanded an explanation.

“You are the real-goro-deal, aren’t you, brother?” said Bayge.

“Lord Daruk would call you brother of Gorons,” added Kabetta.

“A true brother, goro!” concluded Heehl.

“Please, let’s keep calm, everybody” said Zelda, gesturing at the Hylians to make some room, “Link, where do you know this gentlemen from?”

“A… test of will,” Link couldn’t believe his eyes, “what are you doing here?”

“When we learned the Calamity was gone, we knew it was you and we came rolling!” Heehl explained, “we could have helped you, brother, but you are too much of a hero, aren’t you?”

“You have to do the things your own way or nothing, isn’t it, goro?” added Bayge, “but now we are here to show our respect and help ourselves with some tasty rock tiles!”

“Yes, rock tiles are delicious with some rock roast on top!”

Link lost it. Those guys! He laughed so hard he had to embrace himself and the Gorons laughed along him, making a big scandal. When he calmed down, he found all the Hylians hiding behind Zelda. She seemed to be amused, with a little smile painted on her lips. He recognized something in that smile, a hidden message that made him giggly again. Behind Zelda, Olkin the farmer cleared his throat and Link realized the Hylians were staring at him.

“It’s alright,” he told them and turned to the Gorons, “eh, brothers, the tiles are excellent, yes, but that’s why we use them for making roofs.”

“Oh, really? I thought nowadays the Hylians made everything out of wood,” Kabetta replied, looking around him. Effectively, all the makeshift stuff was made of wood.

“It is a waste to use such fine tiles for a roof, goro,” declared Bayge.

“If broken tiles taste as good as the ones still complete, I am sure we’ll have some to spare,” offered Zelda, taking a step forward.

The Gorons looked at her. Link jumped to make the necessary introductions.

“This is princess Zelda,” he said, “she is… the supreme sister, goro, we defeated the Calamity together, like… goro-brethren.”

Link heard Zelda chuckle under her breath and some Hylians covered their faces. The Gorons looked at each other.

“Well, if this sister is our brother’s sister,” said Bayge, “then she is a true sister!”

“Yes, true sister!” exclaimed Link and punched his right palm with the left fist.

“TRUE SISTER!” yelled the Gorons and did the same.

The Hylians burst into laughter and joined the cheering. Relieved, Link smiled at Zelda, unsure of how to explain the situation better. She gave him a reassuring smile back, then winked at him and proceeded to guide the Gorons to a table.

It took him a while to notice he was open-mouthed.

During the dinner, Kabetta recounted how everybody in Goron City had run to the cliffs to see what was going on as soon as Vah Rudania shot towards the castle. They had seen a dark mass in the fields, then, a dome of light that covered everything, then the horrible cloud of malice and a final burst of bright energy. Link felt idiotic: he hadn’t considered the effect of the four divine beasts blasting lasers out of their mouths on people across the land. What had the Rito done when Vah Medoh shot right over their heads? Had they seen the confrontation too? All the races knew there had been an attempt to defeat Ganon, if anything, they were unsure of whether it had been successful or not. Thinking about the guy at Wetlands Stable and the spread of rumours Impa had described back in Kakariko, Link couldn’t help but feeling Zelda and he had made everything wrong.

“After that, the boss had all the brothers looking for that blasted Yunobo to ask him what he knew about the fuss,” Heehl said and patted Link on the back, “we expected Yunobo knew about your whereabouts because you worked together on the deal with Vah Rudania, but the pebble didn’t know a thing!”

“He actually had the nerve to say you may be at your house down in the southwest, goro,” added Bayge, who was sit in front of them, and punched the table, making the pieces of tile they had gathered for him jump off his plate and into Zelda’s rice bowl, “but we knew better!”

“Yes, we know our brother better than Yunobo!”

“Where you sent in representation of the Goron chief, then?” asked Zelda, discretely moving the pieces of tile to a napkin.

Link looked at them with curiosity. He had tried the prime rock roast in Goron City (after breaking it with a hammer in pieces small enough to swallow without chewing) and it hadn’t been that bad. If the tiles, once roasted, were such a delicatessen… but Zelda had noticed and was biting down a laugh. He was tempted to pinch his own arm to see if that make him focus once and for all.

The Goron Blood Brothers explained they had come by their own will. They said the boss was not in a rush to know what was going on, because whatever had happened, it hadn’t moved Vah Rudania out of Death Mountain and the damn machine was everything he cared about. 

“When it stopped roaming, we thought we could open the mine again, but it is still too hot,” said Kabetta, rolling to his back with a smile of satisfaction, “the weather here is so good I wouldn’t mind staying until I am mossy!”

“Dorill told us you got Grayson a position in Akkala, brother” said Heehl, “would you mind do the same for us here?”

“Don’t think we don’t want to become strong like Lord Daruk anymore!” Bayge added, “all the opposite, without good jobs, we can only call ourselves weak, goro.”

“Lord Daruk was a tireless worker, he worked all day and all night long!” shouted Heehl and offered a toast of the boiling water taken from the hot springs under the castle, “for Lord Daruk, champion of the Gorons!”

People cheered from the tables. Link raised his glass of milk and glanced at Zelda. Her smile was full of sadness. Daruk seemed to know her to some extent, Link recalled, but maybe they were closer than he estimated. 

“I… think there is a chance for you to work here,” he said and took Zelda by the hand closer to him, to get her attention, “in Tarrey Town, the manager asked me to find Gorons first; they can clear the ruins faster than any of us.”

She glanced at their hands together and then at him, a question in her eyes. He thought of moving his hand away, but there was that hidden little laugh again in his head, a feeling that said taking her hand was a normal thing to do, that he had done it countless times. If it wasn’t so, how could Link explain that she held his hands so naturally, first in Kakariko, then in the library, just hours ago?

“I understand, yes, that sounds lovely,” she said and looked at Bayge, “may I ask, what would serve as good payment for your efforts?”

“A good Goron gets a silver a day in the mines.”

“Two reds plus tiles four times a day,” Link offered back.

He noticed Zelda’s eyes on him and didn’t dare to look back. Instead, he gently squeezed her fingers.

“You got me at the tiles, goro!” Heehl laughed, “Kabetta, what do you think?”

“No work during the night, a free day each week and a nice bonus purple every fortnight.”

Link would have given anything to be able to speak into Zelda’s mind the way she did. He wanted to tell her he had more than enough at Hateno, that, if the findings of the past days weren’t enough, he could pay. He wanted to assure her the Gorons would do an excellent job, too. He dared to meet her gaze. There was a sparkle of amusement in her eyes, and surprise and a pinch of exasperation. Why wasn't she speaking into his mind? Was that part of her intention to help him with his memories, or better, with his mind?

“I must make you aware of the possibility of receiving land as payment,” she said and moved her hand to grab Link’s thumb, “does our weather charm you enough to consider permanent residence?”

The Gorons scratched their chins, looking around them. There was not much to see, just improvised tables being cleaned by people who was done with the dinner. Link’s heart raced, Zelda’s grip on his hand was soft, but firm. It felt deeply familiar, to the point an exhilarating relief wanted to overtake him. Something was coming to be remembered. The situation could deal with Link’s absent mind for some minutes, and the first echoes suggested it was going to be a peaceful memory. Better to let it in. 

“Let’s do the rupees for a fortnight or so, alright, sister?” Heehl offered, “no need to rush, goro.”

The other two nodded in approval. Where was the memory? Link had a terrible urge for that conversation to end already. Where was any memory? He realized he had not seen a new one since the encounter with the lynel. 

“You are right,” Zelda said and let loose of Link’s hand to stand up, “welcome again and please make yourselves comfortable; tomorrow we will speak the details of the work. Please excuse me now, I must take care of some eventualities that occurred during the day. Link?”

He couldn’t stand up, as protocol demanded.

“Please introduce these gentlemen to Parcy and tell her about the arrangement we just made, she will know how to proceed,” she instructed, unaware of his crisis, “meet me at ten next to the west waterfalls, there is something I need you to help me with.”

Link forced himself to nod. Zelda arched her brows, gave them all a well-mannered smile and left towards the exit to the barn.

“What is it, brother?” asked Bayge and patted Link’s back so strongly he almost fell into his face, “you look hungry, why don’t you help yourself with some tiles? All that flesh and plants are no good for a true brother!”

After leaving the Gorons in the hands of Parcy, the girl of Riverside Stable (who Link didn’t remember to be so proactive and enthusiastic), he found himself with two free hours in his hands. It had to be enough time to find a memory in the castle, the place in the kingdom with more objects and rooms related to Zelda. There had to be a reason why he had not remembered anything since the lynel and other that explained why he was suddenly upset about it. Hadn’t he prayed for them to come all together or just stop, after all? He had gotten the latter, it seemed, he should be jumping up and down with joy. Instead, Link had a feeling of nausea crawling on his throat.

That memory he had felt coming was a happy one. He was sure, and curious, desperate to know what had happened. He wandered aimlessly, unable to focus on anything because his mind went back to Zelda’s grip around his thumb and the message that it conveyed, hidden to his eyes.

When he lost his patience, he sat at the top of a tower overseeing the waterfalls. He had collected a good number of broken tiles for the Gorons and had found a bunch of elemental arrows, but not a single memory. Just like the champions’ abilities, there was a void impossible to fill in the middle of his chest. He took the Master Sword from his back and analysed the blade under the moonlight. The night after speaking with Impa, it had broken its silence to tell him that he should follow his heart to Fort Hateno and trust the Goddess. 

His heart didn’t want to go to Fort Hateno. In fact, that was the place none of his being wanted to visit, ever again. And never had he had less reasons to trust the Goddess, either.

How tiresome. Link sheathed the Master Sword again and looked at his hands. The memory was hiding there, somewhere in between the scraps and the little finger that had swollen after a bad parry made the shield squeeze it too much. Maybe it was fractured. Link wondered if Mipha would have cured that.

The sound of the waterfall reminded him of her, or at least, of the idea he had of her. She was compassionate and shy, yet strict. A lethal warrior as much as a miraculous healer. Caring, disciplined, determined. No, she wouldn’t heal a simple swollen finger. Probably. He didn’t know for sure because his past life was behind a waterfall bigger than those around the castle. A deep waterfall of black water, of liquid malice or divine resentment.

Link looked at the sky. The waning moon smiled in a corner, letting the stars shine. The night looked clear, now that the red pointer lasers of the Divine Beasts didn’t cross it. The Zora were looking at that same sky. With no light coming out of Vah Ruta, King Dorephan was probably saying his very last goodbye to his daughter. Link discovered himself jealous of the poor king’s pain. The Zora remembered Mipha. She was not an image of nostalgia like Daruk or Urbosa, she was not a fuzzy tale of old like Revali or a fraud like Link himself. To their people; Mipha was a daughter, a sister, a friend, the princess with whom they had shared their lives and whose absence, always fresh, hurt. Even the vague memories of Prince Sidon, who was still a toddler by the time of the Calamity, were tangible in a way that allowed him to genuinely miss Mipha and mourn her loss by the statue in the Domain. They had been happy with her and they could go back to that when the heart faltered.

When he was in his lowest, Link used to search for the warm spot Mipha’s Grace had in his chest. It was his most cherished connection with the past. Along the other champion’s abilities, and the dim echoes of voices that came with them, it was his strongest drive towards remembrance and against the wish to simply turn the back on the ruins and graves. If he was going to be deprived of Mipha’s Grace, Link at least wanted the chance to seek solace in Zelda’s hand instead. Why so, though, and why so suddenly? 

It was about time to go and meet her. Link took the bag of tiles he had made from a broken royal banner and headed to the general kitchen first. On the way, he decided that he would not tell Zelda about the memories, at least, not for the moment. Better to take a risk and test one more thing, try to get a strand of that vague sensation that had made his jaw drop hours before. If the memory didn’t want to show up, he would force it to come out with the battered palms of his hands.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, he had been there at least once, in her own bedroom, in the castle, under her nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are getting closer to the end now! I can't believe it. University is very demanding and I have some trips prepared for next month; I will try to keep posting, but it may become a bit slower. Sorry in advance!

The wind brought freezing air from the plains, carrying all the clouds out of vision. The night sky was surely beautiful, full of stars, but Zelda kept the torch so close to her body that the flames didn’t let her verify it. Maybe she should tell Link to leave the inspection to the next day. She knew, though, that the sunrise would bring many challenges, more newcomers, preparations. It was unlikely she could spare any minute.

It was a childish task, anyway. Zelda lamented needing Link for doing it. She just wanted to pick up her stuff from her study and bedroom. Several people had offered her to go in her behalf or at least stay with her during the whole thing, but Zelda refused. It was something too personal. Even if Link had never entered to her quarters, he was the only support she would admit.

He wasn’t there when she arrived. To be fair, she had left her previous task at the gateway a bit too early, eager to find some peace. Holding the torch with the left, she managed to take the sheikah slate out with the right and bring a broken metal door closer with magnesis. It was her excuse for not meeting Link directly under her quarters, a silly attempt to delay the awkwardness. They would use that door as elevator to move her belongings down. It was easier than carrying them down the outdoor stairs, now that the inner access was blocked by debris.

“Zelda.”

Hearing her name in Link’s voice took her one hundred years into the past. She turned and lifted the torch to see him.

Instead of a royal guard uniform or the Champion Tunic, he still wore his muddy Hylian outfit. While she expected he would use his free time to rest or take a bath, he looked even dirtier and more tired than before. His former tidiness, his formal face, everything gone, replaced by a careless stand with the hands in the belt and the torch light playfully dancing in his eyes.

“Thanks for coming,” she said, concealing her disenchantment, “please, follow me.”

Making the door hover in front of her, Zelda guided Link to the base of the outdoor stairs. The tower looked menacing. She hesitated. Link, who had been walking behind her, stood to her right side and looked up. Zelda observed his profile and how the light bounced on his blue earrings, those he was never seen without. Link turned at her, curious. Zelda realized she was staring.

“My study room is at the top of the tower,” she explained, “I need help retrieving my books.”

“The stairs go to a bedroom,” he said, “a silver moblin lived there.”

Zelda’s heart sank. So, he had been there at least once, in her own bedroom, in the castle, under her nose. At that point, it was frustrating she had missed so much of Link’s adventures. She wanted to rub her face, wondering if her memory was failing her or what, but she had both hands full.

“Should I…?” asked Link and pointed to the stairs, the other hand about to take Revali’s bow out.

“That is my bedroom.”

The tone of her voice had been unnecessarily harsh. Link frowned. Zelda could feel her heartbeat hammering her ears. The shame tried to push her to go upstairs, but the mere thought of seeing her belongings trashed, pawed by thieves, covered in mosh and moblin saliva froze her in place.

“It’s alright.”

Link offered a hand to take the torch. Zelda resisted the urge to step back. She needed that courage, that support. It was just a bedroom, with a bookshelf full of treaties and novels she had already read, clothes so old the bandits hadn’t taken them, an unusable bed and research notes dissolved by the rain. She could do it.

“Leave the door, for now,” he advised.

Zelda gave him the torch and proceeded to put the door against the wall. Thinking about it, she should have procured another torch. Both places had a decent number of windows and the night was clear, even so, it was likely she would miss things and had to go back later.

“Let’s go,” Link said with a soft voice.

“How couldn’t you notice that was my bedroom?” she replied, unsure of why it made her angry.

“I didn’t nose around.”

That was hard to believe.

“Didn’t the notes or the journals give it away?”

“I didn’t stop to read anything.”

Zelda hung the slate from her belt and gave a rub to her face. If he hadn’t noticed, it was because he was too focused in something else, and that, she was sure, was scavenging. He had gone all over the castle looking for treasures and weapons, with no intention of discovering something about the royal family and their history, without any consideration about her.

Link’s hand in her wrist took her by surprise. He pulled gently and managed to lace their fingers together. 

“Come on,” he insisted, giving her a reassuring little smile.

How Link could be so oblivious, Zelda had no idea. She also didn’t understand why he insisted on taking her hand. It had come as inappropriate during the negotiation with the Gorons and she didn’t want to face the same situation with, say, a bunch of caustic Rito warriors. To explain that to Link without triggering memories or making things go too fast would prove to be challenging. In any case, his grip was the comfort she needed. Clarifications could wait.

Zelda let him guide her upstairs to find a hole instead of a door. With no barrier to delay the moment, they stepped into the room and Link lifted the torch.

The spiral staircase was gone, only a piece of the central pillar still stood. The roof of the bed had collapsed over the mattress, the rugs were consumed by bugs and the walls were covered in spider nets. To the right, the shelves had fallen over the desk and the tablecloth looked chewed. Neatly open on the table, Zelda recognized her diary.

“What’s this doing here?” she asked, letting go of Link’s hand, “did you know?” he shook his head vehemently. “It was in my nightstand!” she said, picking it up, “to leave it there, open for anybody to read…” the words got stuck in her throat. The faces of all the former bandits who were now part of the camp paraded in her mind. They had found and shared her diary as if it was some laughable drama.

“Zelda.”

“I can’t believe this insolence!” she screamed, closed the diary and turned to her personal library, finding the shelves basically empty, “what happened here? Where are my books?”

“I... think some people got stuck here for a while and they used the books to light a fire.”

Zelda let the diary on the table and walked straight to the fireplace. A moldy leather book cover lied among damp ashes.

“How did you know?”

“I saw it while taking a guard bow from the corbel.”

“I didn’t keep bows here, Link.”

He shrugged, clueless.

“Why did you come here in the first place?” she demanded, “this is obviously not the way to the sanctum. Did some ‘pal’ tell you to get treasure, maybe?”

“What?”

“I know you took every single bow, shield, sword and claymore out of this castle.”

Link looked baffled. Zelda felt her cheeks burn, but what had been said was said.

“I didn’t do it for profit,” he complained, “I used them against the scourges of Ganon.”

“And to show them to Parcy and to brag about it with the kids in Hateno,” better to let it all out at once. “Paya told me your house there is stuffed with my family’s belongings.”

“That is not true.”

“You just don’t get it” Zelda clenched her fists, “you don’t have a clue, don’t you?”

He didn’t answer. Zelda felt weak on the knees, she longed to sit down. The red velvet couch in the middle of the room looked still sturdy enough to be used, but the seat cushion was probably eaten up by mites or something. Instead, she went to sit in a broken brick that stood out of the spiral stair debris.

“I gave it all and I am giving it all, but they just ask for more,” she said while panting, “they smile and say thanks and praise me for getting rid of Ganon, but they demand answers and resources and guidance and rupees while slacking off their duties and whispering behind my back.”

Link didn’t even blink.

“I want to trust them, but I see the opportunism, I can hear them talking about how they will take advantage of me to become rich at last. I can’t help but thinking that, if it served their purposes, they would burn me as they burned my books.”

Without a word, Link pulled the round table in front of the couch to make it stand again. Then, he took the candle holder from Zelda’s desk and put it on it.

“What are you doing?”

He took another candle holder from Zelda’s nightstand and put it next to the first.

“Are you even listening to me?”

Link took the last candle holder from a table next to the folding screen, which was miraculously almost intact, and added it to his collection. Tangling the three, he managed to make a torch stand.

“I am sorry we are not what you want,” he said, sticking the torch in his little work, “you can still use us, if you will.”

Zelda looked at him with apprehension.

“This is not about you, Link.”

He adjusted his left book with a soft kick to the ground.

“Sorry for yelling at you. I am stressed.”

He stretched his neck to the side. Out of the corner of her eye, Zelda could see her diary. To think she had registered there the process of making Link open to her.

“Can you please bring the door?” she asked, handing the sheikah slate to him.

He nodded, took the slate and left without looking back. Zelda pinched her cheeks in frustration. 

She took all the books left with no regards of their condition. They were survivors and deserved a place in her collection because of it. She also took the frame of her parents’ official portrait, lamenting that the picture itself was gone; four dresses and two breeches that remained in her closet. She was happy to see the novels in the bookshelf next to her nightstand were all there, but her enthusiasm went away when she noticed that her stuffed fox plush, a gift from her mother when she was little, hadn’t had the same luck.

Link brought the door soon enough and decided to make a ramp out of it to make access easier to the second floor. Moving things around to hold it better, he ended in the balcony.

“Yahaha! You found me!” yelled a high-pitched voice, that Zelda recognized as a korok, “long time no see, Mr. Hero. Chio and Walton want to see you, Maca ask for you nine hundred times a day!”

Link said something so quietly Zelda could not understand. Intrigued, she left the clothes she was folding aside and approached stealthily. 

“How many seeds since the last time you visited, though?” asked the korok, “Hestu is upset because his maracas are lame.”

“I can’t play anymore, you all have to give back the seeds yourselves.”

“No way! That is not fun at all! You are carrying dozens.”

“Yes, but I can’t travel right now.”

“Click, click, Keo Ruug!”

“The slate is not mine anymore.”

Zelda peeped to catch a glance of the korok. It pulled from Link’s pants like a clingy child.

“Click, click, to Keo Ruug and back,” the korok insisted, “run and swim up the waterfalls, it will take only a moment.”

“I wish, but I can’t” Link said, “tell the Deku Tree and everybody I will go to give the Master Sword back and not before.”

“Ow, ok,” said the korok and let go, “buh-bye!”

And with that, it disappeared. Link glanced at the sky. He looked unhappy. Zelda came to the moonlight.

“Hey, ehm…” she started. He straightened and gave her the blank stare, like the soldier he used to be, “if you want to, after we are done here, you can use the slate to visit the koroks.”

Link offered the slate back.

“I mean it.”

He didn’t move.

“Or go to the beach, or anywhere,” Zelda insisted, “as long as you are back to the meeting, you can go.”

He didn’t give in.

“Let me make up for the treatment I have given you, please.”

“There is a diplomatic mission.”

Zelda bit her lower lip. To let Link visit some settlements for leisure before the official meetings could raise misunderstandings, that was true. Between the two, he was the recognizable face and she depended on him to gather the people in each town.

“What about a place in the wild?”

Nothing.

“Isn’t there anything you want?”

Finally, Zelda could see an affirmative answer shine in his eyes for a moment. Then, he shook his head and put the slate in her hands.

“Oh, come on!”

Link didn’t say another word. He took the torch and candle holders to the study, which not only was untouched by thieves and monsters, it also had a Silent Princess sprouting from the debris. Nature was brilliant, it dissolved all of Zelda's doubts. She was tempted to try and move it to one of the jars, to keep it safe. She knew very well it would only kill it, though. While Link took the instruments and recipients to the bridge, she opted to take some pictures of the flower with the sheikah slate.

“I can’t wait to have this transferred to a frame painting,” she said, “I can’t believe it ended growing in my study room. Maybe I brought seeds on my clothes by mistake? They may reproduce that way, it would explain why we weren’t able to cultivate them. I wonder how long they live, now.”

Link had no comment. Zelda looked at him come and go, loading up the door he had fixed in place before giving her the slate. She hadn’t told him the purpose of the door, he had figured it out by himself. That was something the old Link couldn’t manage, for sure.

Zelda shook his head. It was enough of comparing the old and the new Link. Every discussion they had was because of her fixation with that; insisting on it would only bring suffering. ‘You are ambidextrous now and we have to deal with it,’ she had said, and she had to stick to her own words. Link was only one person, a mix of the experiences of the past and the present.

“I am not too confident about taking the door down,” she told him when they were done loading, “can you do it?”

He accepted with a nod. His ability with the sheikah slate was extraordinary. It was to be expected, Zelda knew that specific device had been made for him. The magic ingrained in the circuit only answered to the Chosen Hero’s soul for a reason. She should make him keep it, but the thought made her uneasy. Besides the importance the slate had for research, the words of the korok resonated in her head. Click, click, and he was gone, forever if he wanted to.

When they were downstairs, he interrogated her with the eyes.

“My room is at the observatory now.”

She walked in front with the torch. It was past midnight and nobody besides the guards were awake. Zelda hoped there were tireless frogs still in the reserves. She had learned to rely on the support of enduring elixirs and she would definitely need a couple of them to survive the next day.

“Thank you, I will put some order later,” she said when everything was under the roof, “good night, I hope tomorrow you will finally take some rest and a bath.”

Link looked down.

“Will you tell me now what you want?” she ventured, “I am not a Hinox anymore.”

He bowed to say good night. 

“I know why you stay silent but spare me for once, alright?”

“I apologize.”

They were back to first base. Zelda couldn’t be angry with him, she understood her fault. What a good queen she would become.

“It was something to prove about the past, but it doesn’t matter now,” he said and turned his face to hide it from the moon and the light of the torch, “I just wondered if we used to fancy each other.”

Zelda froze in her place.

“I was under the impression that we did and that we even took it somewhere,” he added, “I may have fooled myself.”

“W… what?”

“I hope you forgive my temerity,” he said a bit too quickly and turned around. Zelda ran to intercept him.

“How did you arrive to that?” she asked, “what did you remember?”

“Nothing,” Link stepped back, refusing to let her see his face clearly, “don’t dwell over it, I am used to be wrong.”

“But you are not wrong.”

Link looked directly at her. His eyes were misty, and tension went so high Zelda could swear it became audible. He looked down to his belt, where the sheikah slate shone faintly.

_Don’t you dare, don’t even think about it._

Her words collided against the barrier of his mind. As if time had become liquid, Zelda saw him taking the slate out and open the map without being able to react. 

_Don’t, hear me out, let’s talk about it!_

She despaired while he found the place he wanted to go. If her body was not going to move, she would demolish the doors of his mind with the sheer volume of her screams.

_Don’t! DON’T GO ALONE!_

“I see how I failed you now,” he said, “this might help.”

_Let me go with you, please!_

“I will try to come back, for real this time.”

A blue light engulfed his body. Zelda managed to open her mouth.

“Please, Link!” she screamed, but he was gone.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _You chose me, and I gave you my life. You chose me again and I snatched your blessed daughter from the hands of Evil._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am neglecting uni work so badly, lmao. Zelda >>> literary theory, amirite?

Fast-travelling was never something Link’s brain could process. Every time, his mind disappeared in the blue light, floating in the vast obscurity for a spilt second before dropping back to reality. When he perceived the proximity of his destination, the shrine of Kam Urog, he clung to that blissful nothingness, wishing to stay there for an eternal single second, but the sheikah magic spat him hard to the ground and he fell on his knees.

Link had only been there once before. A forsaken memorial to the lives lost in Fort Hateno, it was a creepy little grove surrounded by cliffs and covered in statues of the spirit of guidance. Nobody came close but a self-absorbed researcher whose name and purpose Link had forgotten. Slowly, he stood up and put the slate back in his belt with trembling hands.

He made his way through the irregular ground, carefully avoiding the statues. The shadows were deep, and his senses were not as sharp as usual. His mind felt like a bubbly pond of mud. Zelda and he had been together. How? He skipped a fallen column, took a couple steps and tripped over the remnants of a wall. In front of him, the silhouette of a statue stood alone. 

The first in the line, the warrior commander of the battle in Fort Hateno. That statue had been erected in his honour, it was the reason Link had not been back to that place. He had come in terms with the fact that most people believed he had been forever lost in combat; beyond that, the story was confusing: they spoke of the heroic clash between the battalions of Hyrule and the guardians, but Link didn’t remember any soldier escaping along Zelda and him, he didn’t recall any friendly shield getting in the way of the laser beams. It hurt to know he was the captain of the royal guard, yet he couldn’t remember the sacrifice of his own men, neither he could see their faces or say their names. 

Link stood up and dusted off his clothes. There was no point in thinking about any of that before finding the memory. From the pictures in the slate, he lacked other four or five, but they were probably locked behind that thick curtain that had appeared during the battle with the lynel. This one was his best bet to re-open the window, to go back as far as he could into the past. 

The darkness hissed, filled with danger. It was a familiar feeling. Link walked past his statue and a group of stalkoblins raised from the earth. It was the first he encountered since defeating the Calamity. Unfazed, he drew the Master Sword and charged forward. Evil could stay afraid only so long.

Zelda and he, together. It explained the agitation that had accompanied him since the moment he woke up to her voice, the urge to storm the castle and see her face, her smile. The heads of three stalkoblins went down with a single strike of the Master Sword. He was a soldier and he knew his mission.

The bones of the monsters dissolved into darkness. Link could hear the river and the wind blowing through the ancient formations of stone across it. With the sword still in his hand, he set off to the walls. The light of a fire stopped him. He had seen that before.

There was a stubborn clan of bokoblins that came back to camp in the riverside, no matter how many times Link or the Hateno villagers scared them away. It was so frequent to find them that people had explosive barrels stored nearby to attack them on sight. Their snoring was audible. Things were going back to normal.

Was that relief, what he felt? Link hit himself in the head and kept walking. Idiot. Selfish. The world was not supposed to return to the chaos he knew. The new normal consisted in weakened monsters hiding in the shadows, unable to terrorize people. The new world would be covered in beautiful towns thriving under the loving hands of the queen of Hyrule, she who would traverse the land in company of her appointed knight, the one that she trusted and…

Link stopped again. He was not that appointed knight. For one-hundred years, his body had been paying the price of recovery with pieces of that being, exchanging them for a second chance and receiving a second life instead. No amount of memories would make up for the time lost. He gritted his teeth. There had to be a way. The Master Sword had told him to follow his heart to Fort Hateno for a reason; when the Goddess allowed him to remember things related to Zelda only, she had not mistrusted him or judged him: she had given him a guiding thread to hang onto, a way back to Zelda’s love. The least he could do was to honour that act of mercy.

With the Master Sword in his hand, Link reached the grove behind the walls. Some light came from the windows of the researcher’s cabin to the left; a bit further, the cooking pot was lit. Was he up already? The sunrise would still take some time. Link left the path and scuttled among the trees, just in case. He was so tense he doubted he could speak if questioned, better to avoid an encounter.

After surrounding a small pond, he made it to the walls. Link didn’t want to sheathe the sword, but it was easier to climb than to sneak to the gate. With four jumps, he reached the top. The carcasses of dozens of guardians rose like gravestones under the moonlight, faintly, in the distance, the yellow light of the torches at Dueling Peaks’ stable shimmered. The air was heavy with rancid water from the swamp. The picture at Impa’s place had been taken from the other side, he had a better chance to get the memory if he found the exact spot.

There were three guardians piled against the wall. Link jumped to the head of one first and then to the floor. As soon as he landed, he heard a familiar noise and noticed the Master Sword’s blade glowing blue. To the right, the decayed guardian screeched, moving its eye erratically, looking for him. 

If Link carried a shield, he could finish the machine with one of its own laser beams, but it was not the case. The system of the thing was obviously corrupted, otherwise the Master Sword would not react to it, but something told Link he’d better not waste his time. Instead, he took the slate out, applied stasis to the guardian and ran, getting out of its range before the rune’s effect wore off.

After wandering for a while, splashing across ponds until his boots and pants were covered in mud, Link found the approximate spot. He lamented the slate didn’t have a reference picture to check if the column he remembered was really on the right, if the tallest mountain was supposed to be on the left. He was sure the ruins of a gate appeared in the distance and that there was a puddle in the middle of the picture, but there were several gates and the puddles changed locations every now and then.

It had to work as it was. Link held the sword with both hands, sticking the point softly into the ground. He closed his eyes and took a deep, stuttering breath. He was ready to witness his fall, for Zelda, for himself. It was enough of staying adrift in the edges of memory, suffering the guilt of failure without owning up to it. It was enough of wandering lost.

He opened his eyes. The swamp was still there. Not even a hint of the tense sensation that came before a memory tingled inside his heart. Maybe he was in the wrong place. Swallowing down his irritation, he resumed his search.

He adjusted his perspective several times in that spot, then looked for another place and found foes where before there was only slurry and tainted water. Stalkoblins came from the earth, keese appeared in between the trees. He stumbled upon two bokoblin clans. Slashing their primitive shields with the Master Sword, he felt trapped in a nightmare. Maybe nothing had really changed, maybe he had been hit in the head by a moblin and dreamed the whole battle for Zelda’s freedom. 

The last bokoblin fell when the sun began to rise. Panting, Link scanned the sky. The lasers of the Divine Beasts had never been visible from that location, their absence twisted Link’s guts anyway. He glanced at the sheikah slate, hoping to find traces of Zelda’s activity in it that helped him shake the anxiety. He didn’t need to check it out, though, he could recall how she used magnesis to hit the lynel with a bookshelf. That was real, he was sure. He tightened his grip on the Master Sword and started to walk towards the wall, following a hunch.

 _You chose me, and I gave you my life,_ he prayed to the Goddess, _you chose me again and I snatched your blessed daughter from the hands of Evil. Here I am to pledge allegiance once again, to renew the vow of obedience that keeps my soul thriving to protect your legacy and serve to your will. I beg of you now, please, let me go back, guide me back and I promise that I will serve you and your heir better than I have ever had._

The decayed guardian detected Link’s presence. He kept walking towards it, looking at it tremble and screech. The lights of the machine went on, the eye rolled uncontrollably, unable to calibrate and fix its target. The Master Sword flashed blue, Link stopped.

Since his awakening, Link had encountered and destroyed more than one-hundred guardians. He was not afraid of them and he had never been, not even after he learned one of them shot him, then clawed him and thrown him in the swamp, taking his life. Zelda had saved him, that was what mattered. The guardian made its head take a full turn clockwise, stuttered, turned in the other direction and the eye finally focused on Link.

 _You chose me, and I gave you my life,_ he repeated, painfully aware of the fact he had no shield, _you chose me again and I snatched your blessed daughter from the hands of Evil. Here I am, ready to suffer any hardship, prepared to tackle any challenge you give me to prove my worth. Show me the way back and I will take it, no matter if the path is covered in spikes or ravaged by flames._

He was still unsure of what exactly had triggered the memory during the battle with the lynel, but his first guess, and the one he believed in the most, was the pain. The image had come just after he had twisted his knee.

The guardian shot. Link jumped sideways and evaded the laser with ease. The blast hit the carcass of another guardian, blowing up its leg. Link estimated that he could receive at least eight shots before being in real danger, always that none of them hit him in a critical point. Still, a voice at the very back of his mind told him that was not the way. The guardian shot three times in a row, Link dodged them all. What a spectacle for the Goddess to whom he had just swore he would endure anything. The guardian loaded another shot.

_Link._

He gripped the hilt with both hands.

_Link!_

He charged forward.

_LINK!_

He stabbed the eye of the guardian with the Master Sword and the energy of the laser beam produced an explosion that launched him back. Mid-air, he realized he had been hearing Zelda’s voice.

The guardian screeched one last time and exploded. Link landed in a puddle and stood still, sinking into the mud, waiting for her next words. The clouds passed by, carried by the wind. The sun arose.

Silence.

“Can you hear me?” he asked.

Silence.

Link sat, indifferent to the dirty water soaking his clothes. His hands hurt, he was not holding the sword anymore.

“Zelda?”

A metallic rumble came from the guardian remains. The Master Sword vibrated, flashing blue light. It demanded to be picked up immediately, as it did every time Link lost it during battle. He looked at his hands, covered in mud. They were a bit burnt, nothing serious. Had he imagined Zelda’s voice? Had he attacked the guardian out of fear, or driven by common sense? The sword rumbled again, Link shook his hands, stood up and went to retrieve it.

“Sorry,” he told it, as usual, and put it back in its sheath.

A bit dizzy, he sat in the carcass of a guardian and looked upwards. Pale blue sky. At least it could rain, couldn’t it? Some fresh water would do good to the stagnated water of the swamp and its hideous stench. It would refresh Link’s mind and conceal the tears that were about to run down his face. He bent forward and covered his head with his arms. Soon, his sobs turned to bawls. It took him a while to understand he was mourning his past-self, the hero who had died in that very place, the one who had a guidance spirit statue, a gravestone, just some yards into the mountains’ path. The one Zelda loved, or liked, or fancied. The one she remembered, the one she trusted and wanted back. The one Link couldn’t live up to, even if he had triumphed where the last had failed.

_You chose me, and I gave you my life. You chose me again and I snatched your blessed daughter from the hands of Evil. Here I am, my destiny fulfilled, now I kneel before you in search of a new purpose. Useless to your Zelda, I ask you a wish in her behalf: erase my memories once again, put back in place the man she chose one hundred years ago._

Nobody would listen, he already knew. Tired of crying, Link fell quiet, numb. The weight of the all-nighter pulled his eyelids. Things had definitely gone back to what he called normal: he was again in the road, dirty, exhausted after hours and hours of wandering and combat. He was alone again, he even had the sheikah slate back, with the possibility to reach almost any place a matter of seconds.

“Click, click, Keo Ruug!” the korok had said. The Deku Tree could have answers. Zelda needed the slate for research, though. He had lost enough time.

With a deep sigh, he took the slate and opened the map. Once he arrived at the shrine in the docks, he would clean himself in the cold water before taking the passage to the library. That would wake him up and give him the strength he needed to face Zelda.

When he located the shrine, Link activated the fast-travel function. The blue light engulfed him. He closed his eyes to find relief in the brief seconds of non-existence, once again. When he landed, he didn’t hear the water. Instead, the crackling sound of things burning. The smell of smoke. His body seemed to materialize slower than it should; panicking, he tried to open his eyes.

“No, Link, no without the Divine Beasts! Let’s wait for support!”

Stone breaking and falling. Guardian laser beams. Link landed at last and found himself outside, in the pathway to the second gateway, wielding the Master Sword. Zelda, dressed in white, held him by the sleeve of the Champion Tunic. Before he could question her, a roar came from the sky: Ganon spiraled up its cloud of darkness, wreaking havoc.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crying was just another way of wasting water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed this fic now has a defined number of chapters. Yes, this is the second-to-last (I may add an epilogue, but I am not sure). It has been a fun ride!

Curse Link and his unsurmountable idiocy. Now in her room at the observatory, Zelda pulled and twisted her hair until it all tangled in an ugly knot. She was the one to be damned, so prudent, playing the wise girl, going slowly to protect him as if the Hero of Hyrule, chosen by the Goddess, could receive any harm from learning he had a thing with her. Zelda groaned. Naïve, that she was. She had fallen in his little game of fragility, she had played along because she was afraid. There they were, her insecurities, ruining everything. Again.

There was no point in sending people to look for him. Nothing could beat the speed of the sheikah slate; nobody, not even Zelda herself, would be able to make Link go back to the castle if he didn’t want to. She had better let him face alone whatever came to him, as he had decided. Zelda lifted her head and looked at herself in the mirror, her hair a mess, her face distorted by the trembling light of the torches.

‘I will try to come back,’ he had said, ‘for real, this time.’

Idiot. Zelda went and sit in front of the dresser, an old piece originally used by the serving staff. It lacked one drawer and other was stuck, but at least the mirror was not broken, and the wood didn’t had fungi. In the corner, among the stuff rescued from her bedroom, rested her original dresser, the frame of the mirror decorated by a skilled Zora artisan. It was easy to replace one piece of furniture for the other, but it would feel like things were back to normal, and Zelda’ would rather not add that to the mess.

She opened the drawer of the servants’ dresser to take a comb and a bottle of armoranth oil. Link was probably already in the Ash Swamp. Zelda was sure he had gone there to retrieve the memory Impa had showed him. She blinked hard. He was not going to get anything out of that vision, nothing but the sorrow that bit her heart whenever she thought about it.

The soft aroma of the armoranth oil spread across the room. Zelda worked on the tangles slowly, focusing on the mechanical task to calm herself down. Urbosa had taught her that. Urbosa was also the reason why she had long hair, which was uncommon among Hylians. Zelda blinked hard again. She thought of cheerfulness of the three Gorons, who talked about Daruk as if they knew him. She thought of the Zora who carved her mirror frame. She was probably still alive, joining the festival in Mipha’s memory every year. Zelda knew the Gerudo kept Urbosa dear to their hearts, that the Rito remembered Revali. The certainty made a sad contrast with the Hylians, who didn’t have much to say about Link and not a single word to spare for Zelda’s father, King Rhoam.

The oil softened the locks, she undid the messy braids. Her mind went back to Impa and her advice: ‘it may be unwise to jump into action so quickly.’ She should have stopped to understand the state of the world. Instead of riding towards the castle, she should have taken Link to that quiet spot overseeing the waterfalls, close to Impa’s house, and talk. Let him answer to the questions she had instead of assuming everything and charge forward, like a mountain goat gone wild.

“Tell me more about this Tarrey Town,” she said softly, holding a lock of hair against the light of the torches, “do you like that place, Link? Tell me about the tailor you trust, tell me if you have friends there.”

She’d better trim her hair in the morning, the endings were split. The armoranth helped against breakage, but it could not heal what was already damaged.

“Do they remember my father in Akkala?” Zelda asked and took the comb to work on the small knots, “has anybody talked to you about him?”

The words felt bitter in her mouth. They came too late. The hair was almost done, and Link was not back yet. Her power had diminished so much that she could not go through his mind block, but she was sure she could still determine whether he was in the castle or not.

“I found his diary on the study room by the library. Can you read it to me?” she whispered, “can you help me find the crown that belongs to my family?”

Zelda untangled the last bit and left the tools in the table. She knew she had to shake her hair, comb it one last time and rinse the oil, but she did not move: silence held her down. Her questions would remain forever unanswered because Link had had enough time to recover the memory, yet he was not back. He would not be back, and the Champions were not there for her, nor were her father or her mother, lost so long ago.

She closed her eyes. Maybe, after trying one last time, it would be easier to fall asleep. Hyrule spread out in her mind, the dim light of the divine power travelling across the land, drawing the silhouettes of things. People slept in the settlement, the guards walked slowly across the walls. The horses rested their heads on each other’s backs and the cuccos nestled in their pens. The light only reached some miles, not enough to see Link. She sighed and let go.

The team in charge of the food had left amphoras with fresh water nearby. Zelda took mental note of asking for a cooking pot next day; the night was not particularly cold, but the water was freezing. Urbosa had also taught her how to wash her hair without wasting much liquid. Even if Gerudo Town was built on an oasis, life in the desert demanded permanent caution. With a sad smile, Zelda reminded herself that her perils were not special, that she didn’t have it harder than anyone else. Crying was just another way of wasting water.

When her hair felt light and free of oil, the birds were already singing to welcome the sun. The whole untangling ritual had made her relax for sure, and she felt tired beyond words. It was time to rest. However, she found herself still fighting against the impulse of projecting her power to the Ash Swamp. Link was probably far from there anyway, he had no reason to stay after retrieving the memory. Best case scenario, he was collecting more before going back to the castle. More likely, he had gone to Lurelin to have his stupid vacation once and for all.

Drying her hair with a towel a bit too small, Zelda tried to take her mind away from him. She revisited her plans: without the sheikah slate, she would have to rely on Rito messengers to carry information efficiently enough for the needs of the kingdom. After the distribution of plots, she would get some of the royal banners up to attract their attention, or she could send sheikah representatives to Rito Village. She had to ask people about the state of the rivers and see if she could enable communication with Zora’s Domain. So much to do, to fix, to organize.

Zelda threw the towel away. It felt as if Link was calling her name; it could only be a thing of her imagination. Combing her hair with the fingers to give it some more air, she scolded herself for thinking of him as a baby. He didn’t need her, he was not in danger. He had the sacred blade hanging on his back.

It was not enough.

 _Link_ , she called, scooping the land, trying to see him.

A feeling of danger overcame her heart.

_Link!_

Her vision extended to the Lost Woods and beyond, she saw the mountains, her mind swam down the rivers.

_LINK!_

He was nowhere to be seen.

“Begone, then” she grumbled, and walked to her bed.

Too tired to look for her nightgown, she just took her boots and belts off before lying down. She pressed her face against the pillow and let out a long sigh, mentally preparing for the frustration of not being able to sleep. Next thing she knew, the sun was shining high, she had a massive headache and Parcy was knocking at the door.

“Hello Princess, it is half past nine, are you feeling ok?”

Dizzy, Zelda sat down. From the corner of her eye, she could see her reflection on the mirror. She was pale and looked sick, her hair, nurtured and clean, shined more brightly than never before. 

“Believe me, electro elixirs are good for headaches,” Parcy said, once Zelda let her know of her pain, “the key is to keep the concentration low, are you sure you don’t want to try?”

“I will do if I don’t feel better after breakfast,” Zelda conceded and stood up, “why did you let me sleep in? There is much to do.”

“I wanted to come sooner, but the old man Olkin insisted we had to take care of Link first.”

“Is he back?!”

Zelda noticed too late that she was not hiding her surprise. Parcy stepped back with a look in her face that was difficult to decipher. 

“I… didn’t know he had gone anywhere,” she said, and Zelda could feel her cheeks go red, “the Gorons found him sleep-walking in the docks early in the morning and couldn’t wake him up, they called us for help, but it was no use.” Parcy shrugged, a smug little smile in her lips, probably caused by the look of utter horror Zelda knew she had in her eyes, “he probably made a bad concoction to help him hit the pillow, you know he has trouble sleeping.” 

No, Zelda had no idea that Link had trouble sleeping. She sat down again, her head pulsing and making her nauseous.

“You know he has a screw loose,” Parcy said, forcing a gentler smile, “don’t worry.”

Zelda felt like throwing up. Link was not sleep-walking, he didn’t have a ‘screw loose’ either. He was watching a memory, a horribly long one. It was a miracle he had made it back to the castle.

“Where is he?” she asked and rushed to take her boots.

“By the kitchen, locked in the storage room.”

Zelda stopped on her tracks and looked at Parcy in disbelief.

“He won’t lie down!” the woman explained, “he has the sword in his hand too, we didn’t want to risk an accident!”

Zelda rolled her eyes and her head pulsed so badly she almost fell to the floor.

“Get me an electro elixir and bring it to the kitchen,” she ordered, “prepare me a report of novelties and newcomers for eleven and tell the building team they can work on the blockage in my bedroom from now on.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The kitchen smelled of a hundred delicious things that made Zelda’s stomach twist in pain. Parcy, clever as usual, had let the electro elixir with the chefs and was nowhere to be seen. They pointed Zelda in the direction of Link’s storage room. She sat in front of the door to drink the potion, plotting how to proceed.

The voice of her mind felt hoarse, weakened after all the projection she had done the day before. She doubted he would swing the Master Sword while watching a memory, but she better be prepared. The most important thing, however, was to decide what to tell him as soon as he came back.

“I told you not to go alone,” she decided, rehearsing out loud, drank what was left of the electro elixir and stood up.

The stench of rotten water hit her first. Covered in mud, Link was standing in the center of the storage room with the Master Sword in the left hand. The glove on the right was burned, the skin looked a bit red, slightly swollen. He frowned, the lips pursed, the eyes closed, as if he was praying, or maybe hearing a long, long reprimand.

Zelda took a deep breath.

“Open your eyes.”

His right hand fidgeted, wishing to grab a shield or an arrow.

_Open your eyes._

He lifted his head to face her. His eyelashes fluttered; across the room, she could hear his heart pumping wildly against his chest.

_Open your eyes._

He obeyed, but his gaze was lost, blurry. He was not seeing her.

_Wake up, Link._

He blinked and recognized her at last.

“I told you not to go alone.”

Link looked at himself. The sheikah slate in his belt, the Master Sword in his left hand. He lifted the right and analyzed the burned skin, then he went back to her and opened his mouth. No sound came from it. Zelda’s heart shrunk, but she was done pitying him. She crossed her arms.

“And?” she teased, “did you find what you wanted?”

He seemed unable to speak. People tried to spy from the kitchen and Zelda noticed her patience running out. He had it coming, and he could use some taste of how it felt to deal with the memories of all things lost with no one to rely on. Zelda was well over it, she had a headache and things to do.

“Will you please…?”

Link leaned forward, as if he was going to take a step, but stopped mid-movement. His right eye twitched and his vision became blurry. Goosebumps ran down Zelda’s spine. He was gone again.

She decided to approach. When she was within his reach, Link gasped, noticed her and stepped back. Before she could say anything, he changed the Master Sword to the right and sheathed it, then, he took the sheikah slate and offered it to her. She hesitated, he fell on his knees and hands. 

“Oh, for the Goddess!”

Zelda kneeled in front of him. It was another memory. He was smiling.

“Are you alright?” she asked, “what did you do?”

Between the erratic behavior, the mud and the stench, Zelda couldn’t help but wonder if Link hadn’t really drink some bad elixir, as Parcy had suggested. She took his face and noticed he was warm, but not enough to fear a fever.

“Link, you are scaring me.”

He snapped from the memory. His eyes focused on her and his tears dampened her fingers. He widened his smile.

“What is going on?” she asked, holding him firmly.

“The Goddess listened,” he whispered, breathing heavily.

He let the sheikah slate in the floor, between them, and tried to catch his breath, obviously waiting for another memory to strike. Zelda tensed, clueless, expectant. The memory came, she could feel it hammering Link’s conscience down, she felt the vibrations of his soul fluttering.

“Bring me one of the Gorons,” Zelda ordered to the people outside.

She tried to hang the sheikah slate from her belt, only to notice she was not wearing any. Deciding to put it back on Link’s instead, she hold her breath to deal with the stench, hugged him under the arms and proceeded to lift him from the ground. He was stiff. Zelda’s head, mid-recovery, pulsed again in protest. 

“Come on.”

Suddenly, Link wrapped his arms around her. Zelda could not see his face, but she felt him shuddering. He had come back. 

“Link, shake it off, you are going to lose your mind.”

He hugged her more tightly.

“At the top of that hill,” he muttered, “in Kakariko… where we used to hide…”

He let out the softest giggle. Zelda’s heart bumped against her chest, but the blood didn’t seem to flow into her body. She knew that quiet, playful laugh very well.

“The Goddess saw us,” he whispered, “and, in our honor, she planted a patch of Blue Nightshades and Silent Princesses.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But he had won, hadn’t he? Zelda had chosen him. The Goddess had chosen him, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end! Thanks a lot for your support during these months, I read every comment and cherished every kudo. BotW means a lot to me and I am thankful I can share it with all of you.
> 
> I will not write additional chapters, second parts or epilogues. If you want to ask stuff about the fic, leave me a comment or send me an ask on my Tumblr (yabanned.tumblr.com) I will be glad to have a chat!

Spasms. Visions turned into dreams and then into nightmares. Holding onto the paraglider, Link hovered over his darkened life, trying to make sense of the silhouettes, trying to hear the voices that the wind swept away. Star fragments fell from the turbulent skies, he ran after them and got glances of Zelda: the first time he saw her, as a kid. The second time, years later, when he was brought to the king’s presence because he had found the Master Sword. The third, the fourth. Each one more nebulous than the last.

He was starving, he felt sticky with cold sweat. He didn’t know where he was or how much time had passed, there was nobody near and his throat burned. Maybe, if he stopped for a bit to recover, he would see clarity again. If someone could help him go back for half a day to bath, to eat… if Zelda could spare an hour to listen to the things he had seen so far, if only she could guide him back to that field of flowers. 

Ganon roared. He circled the castle again. Link used his soul as ammunition to shoot streaks of light at him, desperate to go back to the search. He would need eighteen years to watch all his life and twenty more to retell what he saw, yet his memory went back to the day of the Calamity, distorting it, whining over it, wasting time. Each memory hid behind a nonexistent version of that battle and Link had to break the wall again and again, killing Ganon, being killed by him.

The towers collapsed, the air was full of screams and the lungs, of purple smoke. Ganon shot light back at him and hit him in the belly. Link turned to the side, retching, and noticed a liquid covering his naked legs and arms. It was not blood, but water. He sat down and saw points of glowing blue light intruding the darkness of a cavern. Close by, a machine breathed slowly. He grabbed his head.

That could not be happening. He tuned his breathing to the mysterious mechanism. Inhale, exhale. There had to be a guiding thread out of his fear. He remembered the face of his friend Kass, the musician: he observed the blue crest, the curved beak, the strong wings with agile, feathered fingers. The golden eyes, reflexive, compassionate. Inhale, exhale. With a voice that came from beyond the clouds, Kass sang of the glories of the past and of secrets hidden for thousands of years.

The kingdom of Hyrule is a vast and storied land,  
oft grasped in the palm of a villainous hand.

Another face appeared in the darkness. White, feathery curly hair, lazy brown eyes with a pinch of red. Heavy eyebrows, a slightly crooked nose, a mole in the lower lip. Finally, Link could see the court poet, the one who had taught Kass the ways of the bards. He saw the man standing in the royal room, awkward in the gala attire required for his role, because it was too rigid in comparison to the clothes of his people.

A dark force of destruction, many times undone  
Rises once again —Ganon, the calamitous one.

Link knew the man could not stand boots and found capes ridiculous, but he could not remember his name. 

But hope survives in Hyrule, for all is not lost,  
Two brave souls protect it, no matter the cost.

Link could not hear the voice of that man either. It didn’t matter. At that point, he had recognized the hot springs under the castle. Relieved, he made sense of his surroundings: the blue lights were new additions, probably made with pieces of guardians, to help volunteers work; and there was no such thing as a mysterious machine, just a sleeping Goron, rolled up in a corner.

He was not back in the Shrine of Resurrection. He was fine. Cautious, Link stepped out of the pool of healing water and looked around. The other two Gorons Blood Brothers slept close by. They were probably not commissioned to take care of him, the place was just one of the warmest in the castle. Better not to wake them up. Silently, he searched for his clothes until he found his pants, boots and a warm doublet resting on top of a guardian carcass. The Master Sword, however, was nowhere to be found.

Its absence irked him. He was used to its company, to the eventual advice it would give with a tiny, exhausted voice. He had learned to deal with its mood (and moody it was!) and he also knew how it didn’t like to be left behind. If it was not calling him right at the moment, it was probably in Zelda’s hands. She was the only one the Master Sword would trust besides him.

Once dressed, Link found himself unsure of how to leave the place. One side of the cave ended in a wooden wall, obviously recent, reinforced with the pieces of a broken rail. To the other side, there was a tricky path that took some turns before dividing in two. Standing in the crossroad, Link told himself he already knew the castle, and tried to recall. To the left, he could reach a place with an inner waterfall, several stores high. From there, there was an access to… maybe the guards chamber, but Link felt he was forgetting something. To the right, there was a hidden access to the dock, not The Docks, but an auxiliary one, used to take prisoners to the lockup without making them go through Castle Town.

An uneasy feeling went through Link like a bucket of ice water. Until then, he was not aware that entrance was intended for smuggling the king’s enemies into the underground cells. Dizzy, he sat on the floor. He had just remembered that, he supposed. He closed his eyes and tried to reach a clear picture. He saw white gloves and white boots, a beret that itched on the forehead. Was that a uniform he used to wear when he was in service? He felt awkward, like the court poet. He tried to see the face of that man again, but the image was gone. He tried to remember Kass, but his features were also gone.

Panicking, he envisioned Zelda. She appeared in his mind up to the last detail, a bright light in the middle of the fog. She wore a white dress with strapped sandals and had the Master Sword in her hands. The blade was rusty and dull, the voice inside barely breathed. That was an old memory. Link was tempted to try and remember how Zelda and the sword looked in the present, but he sensed an abyss opening, he felt dragged back to his nightmares, and he couldn’t stand it. He stood up and ran to the right, going through several broken walls and deserted cells, lifting levers and tackling doors until he was outside, looking at the dark waters of the moat and the starry sky.

The position of the moon indicated it was around half past three in the morning. There were no visible lights on the castle; it stood like a dark, menacing colossus. Link shook his fingers, eager to have a sword to hold. Ganon raged inside his head, making his way through the memories to challenge him, once again. Link would be faster. He ran towards the Observatory to retrieve the Master Sword, to warn Zelda. He climbed, jumped, he tried to summon the Champion’s abilities, only to find them missing; he patted his belt again and again, forgetting he didn’t have the sheikah slate. He changed course halfway through, thinking Zelda should be sleeping in her room; he reacted only when he saw a bunch of blocks next to the stairs, traces of the volunteers’ work in that area.

When he looked up, he saw the black, dirty roof tiles as they were before: shiny and blue. He could see the healthy vines that had grown around Zelda’s balcony, the doves that slept in the banister, a glimpse of golden hair when she crossed from her bedroom to her study. He turned around and cringed at the vision of the castle of old, superimposed on top of its ruins. The guards, the jesters, the merchants. The kids. For the first time, Link understood how much had been lost.

He walked with his head down. The vision faded, it got mixed with the soft noise of the present. He avoided all the tents and sneaked under the guard’s radar, feeling like a stranger. When he finally made it to the Observatory, the makeshift door to Zelda’s provisional room looked oddly familiar, the scene under the stars seemed to repeat itself. Was that really the first time he had shaken the nightmares off? Maybe he had been bothering Zelda at those unholy hours every night for the past few weeks. Maybe not, and the bad feeling was caused by the fact that he had left to Fort Hateno on that very same spot. He could not tell if the door was locked, he didn't want to find out a lock had been put in place to prevent his entrance.

He’d better wait until sunrise. There were a couple of pots next to the door with water inside. A glass rested on the window frame. While serving himself a drink, Link thought it was odd that there was no guard assigned to Zelda. There should be someone always there, protecting her, like in the old times. Link sat next to the doorstep and drank. His throat burned as if he was drinking lava, his stomach twisted, pained with hunger. He didn’t make a noise, he didn’t even flinch. He had that coming, he thought. 

Fuzzy figures danced in the back of his mind, traces of the old castle. White gloves and boots, a beret that itched on the forehead. There were several dozens of them in the royal guard. They competed against each other for the king’s favor, they wished to be appointed knights of his daughter to have an easy life and a high salary. They would banter during lunch time, making jokes about the machines being uncovered and how they would take over all the duties of the army. They were mean with the Sheikah and obscene with the Gerudo, they made fun of Link because he was too close to the Zora. Link wanted to yell at them, tell them to shut up forever. He wouldn’t: Ganon had silenced them, after all. The night was quiet.

He tried to perceive Zelda’s breathing through the stone walls, but it was no use. He had to trust she was there. The hours left before she woke up could be used to think about what to tell her first. She had to learn he was remembering tons of things without triggering fully formed visions. She had to learn he knew a bit more about their relationship, but that he still wasn’t sure about how deep it was. “Deep” was not the word, though. He adored her. He had come to that realization while stabbing Ganon in the eye for the millionth time.

She had been there in every fight against the Calamity. She had battled alongside Link, brilliant, fierce. Without a sword, a shield or a bow, she had run towards the monster, guiding Link to victory, giving him another chance, an escape route, an alternative. Under her light, Kass’ features came back to Link, at last. 

A Goddess-blood princess and a fearless knight,  
They appear in each age to fight the good fight.

Link smiled, he embraced his knees. He had asked Kass to sing that song to him at least twenty times. When Zelda finally met him, she had to listen to it. Link bet Kass’ version was better than the original, composed by the court poet that, now he remembered, was very interested in Zelda back then. He chuckled. That poet, a rival. He, an idiot, thinking of other people as rivals. But he had won, hadn’t he? Zelda had chosen him. The Goddess had chosen him, too. He knew it now.

He let his head fall back, he hit the hard stone. He had been chosen for a lot of things and had failed all of them, what was left to smile about? Better go back to think about the first thing he’d say to Zelda when she woke up: an apology.

For not being supportive from the beginning. For laughing at the dumb jokes of his fellow soldiers. For not listening. For keeping quiet. For staying aside when she was struggling with her powers. For failing against Ganon, for falling in Fort Hateno. For waking up without memory, for not trying to recover it while going around the land. For taking so long to go back to the castle, and for taking even longer to recognize the bond that they shared and had shared for millennia.

The night went away slowly. When the sun was just peeking from behind the towers, Zelda started to move inside the room and Link, relieved, almost fell asleep. Half an hour later, she opened the door.

“Oh, Goddess!” she said, jumping to the side as soon as she saw him, “Link? What are you doing here?”

He rushed to stand up.

“What’s the matter?”

Link tried to speak, but no sound came from his mouth. He tried to cough, but his throat refused to move. He never thought it was that burned; it hurt, that for sure, but not so much that it indicated he had no voice. He didn’t even know how it had become so damaged in the first place. He had woken up like that.

“Go to the nursery immediately, we relocated it to the dining hall.”

Link shook his head vehemently. He tried to take Zelda’s hands, but she didn’t allow it.

“Don’t be obtuse,” she said, with a frown that foretold the diatribe of the century, “go right now, you have caused me enough headaches.”

Link despaired. That tingling sensation that made him giggle, the love he had not recognized before, pushed against his guilt and was winning the battle. If he dared to laugh, she would obliterate him.

“Why are you smiling?”

Oh, he was such a loser, such a big mess. Too bad he didn’t know of a way to express himself without words; he had much to say. He gestured at her to wait and took a deep breath to indicate her to do the same. She crossed her arms. Link pointed at his throat and then said the word ‘why’ without sound.

“That’s what I don’t know and what a medical professional might be able to tell.”

Link’s first guess, that he had screamed in dreams until his voice was busted, seemed unlikely then. Deciding that it was better to be sure, he pointed at himself, mouthed a scream and then cocked his head to the side.

“Occasionally,” she answered, and Link noticed certain insecurity in her voice. He pouted, making her blush, “I have been told you where just tense most of the time.”

Link turned his brow upwards. Zelda seem to bristle.

“Hot springs are curative, it was the best place to keep you!” she complained, “I could not leave my duties, you know? I had to distribute the land, and receive the newcomers, and listen to the delegates, and do all the work while you slept! It has been four days, Link! How dare you laugh?”

Didn’t she realize what was happening? How normal everything felt? Link struggled against the pain while a silent guffaw hammered his vocal chords. That imposed silence, her usual obstinance: what a funny metaphor of their life.

“At least are you feeling alright?” Zelda asked, “are you ok?”

He nodded and offered his hands. She looked at him from tip to toes, then, finally, she accepted them. Recognition travelled through Link’s veins. That was the answer he had looked for. He lifted her hands and kissed her fingers.

Zelda opened her eyes wide. He nodded, and she threw herself at him. He hugged her tightly and rejoiced at the feeling of her hands on his back and his head, he embraced the warmness of her body against his. That was not the stiff hug they had back in Kakariko, this one didn’t have a wall in between. 

“You are such an idiot!” she complained, “you didn’t have to do this, I was so worried!”

Link gave her a twirl and then let go. He asked her to wait, then pointed at his head, opened his arms wide and shook his head.

“Of course, you don’t remember everything,” she said and put her hands on her hips. Link found the gesture endearing, “how many times must I tell you that you are ambidextrous now and we both have to deal with it? The world is not the one it used to be either.”

Link downed his gaze. The phantom of old Hyrule was still fresh in the back of his eyes. He looked at his hands. Ambidextrous or not, he had to get in to work soon. There was a lot to be done.

“Will you indulge me now and go see the nurses?” Zelda asked, “you being quiet is the only thing I don’t miss at all.”

Link scratched the back of his head. In a way, it was lucky he could not speak, because admitting out loud all the flaws he had thought about while he waited for her would be everything but pleasant. He nodded and then gestured as if he was going to draw a sword from his back. Zelda chuckled.

“I get that it is the Master Sword, but you are too obsessed with it.”

‘The sword is the clingy one,’ he mouthed.

“Yeah, right.”

‘Jealous?’

Zelda laughed. This time, Link perfectly understood the words of the Deku Tree; to see that warm smile was worth centuries of wait. He sighed, a bit embarrassed of himself. He didn’t know how he had gotten that emotional.

“I will give you the sword when you can ask for it. Go to the nursery.”

Always practical, thinking through everything at the speed of light. Link bowed, giving in. 

“Hey, Link.”

Their eyes met. The smile was gone. Link feared his troubled mind was about to play a nasty trick on him, but nothing was added to the picture. Ganon didn’t roar, no phantom peeked from the ruins around them. Zelda hesitated. It seemed that now, both were at loss of words.

He took a step forward. The ghost of the old world weighted on their backs, but they were stronger. He reached for her and touched their foreheads together. He would not leave again. He would follow her lead, always, he would carry her will to the end, he would bear with her all the painful memories.

Link sensed how Zelda smiled, and he hugged her tightly when her lips reached his. Her old world had become theirs, and together they would walk towards the future.


End file.
